Predator
by Lyzza
Summary: Two years after the last tournament, the Smashers receive a mysterious letter inviting them to a reunion. Fourteen arrive, only to be trapped inside by a madman thirsty for their blood…
1. Day I

**All right. This first chapter is _really _long, but it includes the prologue _and _Day 1. There will most likely be seven chapters, one for each day, maybe even an epilogue, but I'm not sure yet. This is at a T-rating for violence, mild language (which has a chance of getting worse as it flows along), some graphicness, and the infamous character death. However, it _could _come to the point at which I'll have to move it to M. I predict Day 3, depending on how bad it may get. Don't get your hopes up too high, that's all I can say. **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Super Smash Bros. series or anything associated with it. Just this plotline and some other random, scattered ideas.**

**ON A SIDE NOTE: Master Hand is human here (as in most of my stories). **

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Predator

_Day I_

_Dear Smasher, _

_How long has it been? A year? Two years? It is hard to keep track anymore. What ever is in the case of time, I have planned a little recall party. A reminisce, if you will. A chance to band together once again not on tournament terms, but to see your fellow competitors in an everyday circumstance. This will be much different, yes? A letter has been sent to each of you, so everyone is invited. I would like to see your faces again, and seeing how I have a week of free time, I thought some of you might be in need of some sort of vacation soon. So here is your chance! We will meet together at the Headquarters, where it has always stood, and you will bring what is necessary for a week's stay starting this Thursday. Your rooms are being prepared. Hope to see you soon, _

_Master Hand_

"Thursday is tomorrow," said Marth as he folded up the letter and neatly placed it back in the envelope. He looked at the front of the envelope. The stamp was a rectangular version of the Smash Brothers insignia. "We barely have any time to reply."

"The letter has no RSVP," replied Roy, leaning against his horse.

"Blight is on the other side of the universe," the prince went on, "we have no way of getting there."

"Samus called maybe fifteen minutes before I set out to find you. Wondering if we were going, and if so she would pick us up on the way tomorrow."

Roy didn't bother complaining that it had been extremely hard to find Marth out in the fields and that the fifteen minutes had not been put to waste lingering in the Pherae castle, but out in the world searching eagerly for companionship. He also didn't wear himself out trying to hide the eagerness he still felt even after the letter had been read again. He would never be able to change Marth's wandering ways, nor the way they both felt about the Super Smash Brothers.

It was an organization of the likes they had never seen: so many different races and species pulled together in complete cooperation, working as one body. As each member had his or her own techniques and abilities, no one could ever get sick of each other--because although their own homes were wonderful and exciting, there were few times (or none at all) when you could reach out and feel the silky fur of a pokemon or be intimidated by a giant turtle. And if there was no work to be done, Master Hand, the one to bring everyone in, would organize a skills tournament. It was a way to burn off energy, a way to bond with your friends and enemies.

And now, this letter. It had been...what? Two years. A long time to be bored in such a slowly progressing world as this. Roy couldn't understand why Marth would be so hesitant.

But when Roy questioned this, Marth merely shrugged and said, "Something just doesn't seem right in this."

"Like _what_?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. He usually calls us by our first name. Not so formal like this is." He handed back the letter. "I didn't get one."

Roy turned his horse back towards the kingdom and prepared to mount. "Maybe Sheeda's been reading your post," he said slyly. "Maybe she's decided she just won't let you go again." He hopped on the horse and heard a sigh behind him, turned and regarded Marth again. "You need a ride? I don't know how you can walk so far and do virtually nothing every single day."

"It's not _nothing_."

"I'm sure. I guess you don't need a ride, then. How about you come to me tomorrow?"

"And watch as the entire kingdom goes into a senseless wave of panic when a bright orange ship lands in the square."

"_Fine_, then we'll meet back here again."

"Right."

"Noon-ish."

"Right."

Roy rode off into the east. Marth leaned against a tree and watched him go. Something was definitely not right about that letter; he would wait and see until he saw Master again.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"Guys! Message from some weird guy who wants you at his house tomorrow!"

Fox sighed and turned in his chair to face Slippy at the door. _How many people know, with you shouting all over the ship like that?_ he wanted to ask, but held his tongue. Really there were only two others on the Great Fox, and ROB surely wouldn't care. "What _weird guy_?" he asked instead. He was used to being called on obscure jobs just to have the famous Fox McCloud enter a fan's house. Usually he was ready to decline the favor before it was done being requested.

"Err...Mr. Hand," Slippy replied, seeming to be unsure of the title.

His ears pricked. "Hand?" _Master_ Hand?

Slippy responded by handing over the letter. Then, as he turned to leave, he pulled the envelope out of his pocket and gave it up sheepishly. "Sorry...it was a privacy thing, you know..."

Fox nodded absently and scanned the letter quickly. A reunion between the Smashers. This was something that had never occurred to him. Master wasn't the kind of person to host subtle things like little get-togethers. Then again, the Smashers weren't little. It didn't matter. Too much was going on in Corneria and everything around it. But perhaps this could be beneficial.

"Slip," he said as the frog paused in the doorway, "get Falco in here. Now."

He sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He had been waiting for a call from Peppy, the last confirmation of total damage expenses in the Lylat system. The last attack had been devastating. Most likely Fox would be sent on a reconnaissance mission, making sure there were no lurkers on any planet in the galaxy waiting to spring another hit on them. Then there would probably be some kind of conference establishing nothing but to put fear into the remainder of the stable Cornerians by drawing new tactics and keeping every woman's husband mobilized for war. He didn't want to be here for the expected riot, but there was nothing he could do. Peppy trusted him as team leader, and he would not let him down anymore than he could.

Moments later, Falco slumped in. He had his beak set in an unapproachable way, and seemed especially miffed at Fox for having sent Slippy for him.

"Yeah?" he asked shortly.

"I got a letter from Master Hand."

Falco raised his eyebrows a little. "And?"

"It sounds like a friendly reunion."

"You've got to be kidding me."

Fox handed him the letter and watched his expression carefully. Falco, for whatever reason, had been particularly unbearable since their last mission. A lot had gone on then. Supposedly, it might have been something to do with Katt's reappearance in his life and everyone else's. Whatever it was, though, it made him very agitated and curt, and Fox and Slippy were beyond ignoring that anymore.

When Falco looked up at the letter, he said, "So? As nice as this little getaway sounds, we have work to do here."

Fox waved that away. "They need _me_ here, not you. You can go. You should."

"I can't just leave you guys here, doing all the work."

"You need a vacation, Falco. Take your Arwing. Fly to Blight and relax a little." He tried not to sound so commanding this time.

The bird softened slightly, his shoulders fell from their natural-seeming tensed up position. "You sure about this?"

"Yes. Take it or leave it, I don't care." Fox smiled. "I've seen them all more than you have, anyway. They'll understand."

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Master Hand sat and stared at the piece of paper in front of him, growing doubtful and wondering just what the years alone had done to his sanity. Crazy had left not two months after the tournament with no explanation but "I need some alone time" and the Wire Frames had followed him to who knows where in the galaxy. For once his desk was empty, with nothing to sign, no files to sort. It was one of the least busy years in his life, and he hated it. But this was something new. A single document on the oak surface staring up at him innocently. His named was on it, in his handwriting.

After a moment, he looked up at Link, who was standing in front of the desk looking curious. Master took the paper in his hands, read it over again. Then he held it up to the light, as if there were some transparent markings that would prove something was odd. But, at first glance, and if you knew Master but weren't him, you would know that he had written it.

"But I didn't write this," said Master slowly. "If I did, then I was drugged or delirious. Your beds _aren't_ made."

"It's a forgery then?" asked Link half-heartedly.

Master studied him a moment. The disappointment burned him. "Everyone received this letter. Maybe not everyone will come, but I _do_ still have your beds. They're, like I said, just not made. It is a forgery, or at least _I_ didn't write it, but I have nothing against your staying here." In fact, a little company would be something to occupy him with. "I told everyone before that this was their home away from home--_far away_--but still home. My doors are always open."

"You're serious? Even though you didn't have time to prepare for possibly twenty-five people in your house?"

He laughed humorlessly. "I hardly think everyone received this or else is free enough to come. You've packed for a week, and you shall stay for a week."

Link smiled slightly. Then he left Master in his office and stopped smiling halfway down the hallway. The look on Master's face had said it all. It was his writing style, his normal signature, and his seal. Who could have been so precise to fool over twenty people? Of course, that wasn't confirmed yet--only he, Zelda, Pikachu, Ness, Mr. Game & Watch and Kirby were there. And Ganondorf. But Link wasn't nearly as pleased to see _him_ as the others.

He walked through the Headquarters and then outside into the grass. Even the grass was a little disfigured. That was why the planet was called Blight; although it had similar features to Plit, Kanto, or Hyrule, those features were oddly shaped or only appeared in that phase on Blight. The individual blades of grass where not sharp, but the tips were rounded perfectly.

Pikachu was sitting on the steps, watching the sky. Zelda would be in the kitchen preparing lunch for those who hadn't eaten, as would Kirby most likely. Ness appeared around the side of the building and pointed far off into the clouds.

"Samus," he said. Indeed, a large round saucer-like ship swung through the clouds in the direction of the hangar. The hangar was a separate building on the highest part of the hill that was adjoined to the stadium. The arena itself was off at the center of Blight's capital. Pikachu zipped past his feet towards the ship.

Not much had changed of those he'd seen so far, but Link noticed that Ness was more mature and definitely more sober. Pikachu, on the other hand, seemed to have become more energized. Maybe it was just anxiety though. Ganondorf might have changed, and if he did it wasn't much of a difference. Link doubted that Kirby would ever change, and having spent time with Zelda in Hyrule, he wouldn't be able to notice much change in her as anyone else.

Samus walked out of the hangar into the fresh spring air, and caused the others watching to get a big surprise--she wasn't wearing her power suit as usual. Until they adjusted, she looked quite bare now that they could get a clear look at her face. She wasn't the only one to come out of the hangar, though. Alongside her was Captain Falcon, in his helmet and suit as usual. No one had seen him in anything different, never had he removed his sacred racer's helmet. And then Roy and Marth stepped into the field. Roy, who seemed to have grown a couple inches, was for once dressed casually, though he still carried his sword sheathed at his belt. In his arms was Pikachu, quite content at the extra attention. Marth was in his tunic and had his sword as was typical, but he had left the breast plate and rest of his armor at home. He was still as thin and pale as Link remembered.

He wondered, vaguely, how much they would think _he_ had changed. The five of them came to greet Link and Ness halfway down the hill, and they turned and walked together to the Headquarters.

"How have things been?" asked Roy. "How many are here yet?"

"Not many," replied Ness. "Us seven and four in the building."

There was an awkward pause. _Two whole years,_ thought Link in wonder. "The letter was a fake," he said after a moment of hesitation. "We'll still stay here," he added quickly when they gave him a surprised look. "For the week. Master's decision. He doesn't seem to mind at all."

Over the crest of the hill as they walked, they could see Bowser's silhouette against the building and Ganondorf who seemed to be giving him a high-five. Link frowned. It was bad enough that one had been here; the two villains together assured some sort of trouble during this stay. As they gathered into the house, they noticed Luigi, wearing some sort of jersey, hanging a pink jacket on the lobby's rack.

"Your coat, _signorina_?" he asked without looking back a second time.

Samus threw her jacket to him.

He hung it up, but said, "I was talking to Roy."

Roy playfully punched Luigi in the arm and pulled the coat over his eyes. The pink coat plainly was a sign that Peach was also present. She was in the kitchen greeting Zelda probably. When they gathered into the living room, Master walked in and shook hands with each of them separately. He was tense, but managed to smile at them. When Master left for his office again, Marth pushed his hair out of his eyes and raised an eyebrow at Roy.

"Okay, okay," said Roy, "so you were right about the letter."

"Now I'd just like to know _who_ wrote it."

Captain Falcon, who had been standing near by, spoke up: "I don't know how _anyone_ else could have written it. It may have been typed up in format, but it _was exactly the same writing style_ as Master's. It sure fooled all of us."

Marth counted heads. "Thirteen of us here, counting those in the kitchen."

As if on cue, Peach and Zelda walked out of the room with Kirby, who jumped up to the sofa with Ness and Pikachu. Zelda still had the fair, pale face that they remembered, though her attitude had become much more wise and mature. She still wore her royal gown, and no one could picture her in anything different. Peach, on the other hand, had become visibly stronger but her constant need to be delicate and sweet greatly contrasted this. Her skin glowed and she seemed more physically stable. The two of them came over.

"You need a haircut," giggled Peach.

"Yeah, I guess I've let it go too long..." admitted Marth, blowing another blue strand from his face.

"You've grown some muscle," observed Link with a slight smile. "What's happened over two years?"

She beamed at the thought of someone noticing. Then she pulled the elastic of her pants down far enough to expose her shorts. "Mario has business cleaning up a disturbance with Yoshi on an island far from home, so Luigi and I have been practicing for the upcoming soccer tournament in our spare time. We were caught off guard, though, when this invitation came so we just threw clothes on over our jerseys and hopped a pipe without telling anybody..."

"So no Mario or Yoshi?"

"No. I left a note, but I don't think they'll find it before next week."

"I made lunch, if anyone here hasn't eaten yet," said Zelda after a pause. "There's some hamsteak and salad and fresh fruit."

"You're a goddess, Zelda," said Roy, heading for the kitchen to stock up.

"Oh, well..." She blushed. "I didn't work all that hard..."

As soon as everyone had settled into the living room with a plate of food (or in Kirby's case, two plates), Luigi walked in with Falco by his side. Seeing the two of them together, it was apparent that both had lost a considerable amount of weight. Luigi had probably lost it through consistent sports tournaments, but Falco's feathers were dull and unhealthy-looking.

"Well, Marth, looks like you've got competition in the race for anorexia," snickered Ganondorf.

"That's not _funny_ Ganon," scolded Zelda.

Falco just raised his eyebrows. "Where _is_ everybody?"

"Busy or dead," said Bowser in a bored tone, "hard to tell."

"Food's in the kitchen," said Ness with his mouth full.

"Don't mind if I do," said Luigi, having not eaten since seven in the morning, but was stopped abruptly by Master as he blocked the door.

"You two sit down. I need to speak with all of you." They sat reluctantly. Master walked to the head of the room and looked at everyone with a sigh. "For those of you who don't know yet, the letter you have received not long ago was a forgery. However convincing it is, I did not write it, nor did I sign it, consent to it, or see it before it was sent. Although I wasn't quite prepared for this arrival, you will be staying for the week if you choose. That is, if you don't mind making you own beds."

Everyone cheered.

"Crazy is not here, nor are the Frames, and I will be in my office most of the time working on finding out who sent for all of you. That is all."

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Those are the characters, and they all stick no matter what anyone says. I _did_ want to add Fox, though, so he's in there briefly. I was going to add Mewtwo in all of his awesomeness, but he would just screw around with the plot. I want to keep Ness in line, so I omitted the Ice Climbers and again Young Link or Dr. Mario would just kill the story. **

**See that button down there? Push it, see what it does. **


	2. Day II

Predator

_Day II_

Bowser leaned against the pantry wall and stared. His eyes already burned from waking up so early, and now this was just too much for him to take in. A noise had roused him from slumber. A sound like a sharp clang, and then a shatter. The door of one of the many cabinets was still swung open all the way. A box of batter was lying to the side on the floor, coated in liquid. The rest of the liquid coated the floor around a broken bottle of what looked like wine. And then, in between the bottle and box and slumped against the cabinets was Ganondorf.

The koopa didn't bother feeling for a pulse. Ganon looked more than dead. There could have been a couple reasons for this. Ganon came looking for a snack in the middle of the night, found the wine in the cabinet, slipped, fell, and hit his head on the counter's corner. Or he might've went for the box and the wine bottle came crashing down on his skull. But Bowser knew. Ganondorf wasn't a clumsy oaf--someone had the guts to follow him into the pantry and knock him senseless using the bottle, which was broken at the very bottom. Had the bottle simply fallen from the shelf, it would have hit the middle, and the glass would have split down the center of the bottle width-wise.

Bowser didn't know whether to be scared or sad. They hadn't really been friends, just had similar likenesses in terms of virtues and strategies. He certainly wasn't sad, no, but maybe a little sympathetic. It had been a pitiful death.

The clock in the hallway chimed midnight. The noise had sounded at about 11:50 according to his alarm clock. He waited expectantly for a few moments and then heard a noise behind him.

"Bowser...?" asked Zelda, nearing the room. "What are you doing here?"

The thought suddenly occurred to him that she might think he had murdered Ganon. Well, let her decide for herself. He acted casually, staying against the wall, just looking at the body until she came in. When she saw, she didn't say anything at first, and then she stepped closer as if it were hard to believe. She looked at Bowser then.

"I found him like this," he said. "Did you hear the noise, too?"

Zelda studied his expression carefully. "Yes. Is he okay...?"

Bowser almost laughed but caught himself in time. "No, he's dead," he said, and then suddenly the realization hit him. He could only really take it in as he said it, _Ganondorf is dead_. No one died in the Super Smash League. There were many injuries, but no casualties, no losses. It was unthinkable, really, that one's life could be taken in such a well cared for place like the Headquarters. The security system was at the top of its time, nothing could get in without being noticed.

And seeing the expression of horror slowly spread across the princess' face was almost too much. He stepped off the wall and looked away. "I didn't mean it like I don't care or anything," he said, "I'm just sleep-deprived."

She glanced at Ganondorf and flinched. "I...I'll go tell the rest to come down here. ...You'll stay here?" He nodded and she crept back upstairs again.

Moments later, most of the Smashers were down and at the scene. A couple were still pulling themselves out of bed. The rest, save for Ness, Pikachu, and Kirby who were left undisturbed, were wide awake. Master was fully clothed and regarded the scene silently. He seemed to want to say something, but was hesitant to do so.

"He's..._gone_?" asked Link, incredulous. "Just like that? How?"

"Did he fall?" asked Kirby.

Zelda slid a glance that no one else could see towards Bowser. It was a silent warning not to say anything, for she had not told of his position when she came down the first time. No one knew but the two of them that the koopa had been the first to arrive on the scene.

_ Why are you protecting me?_ he thought.

Master furrowed his brow. "It was probably an accident. He slipped and fell on the counter, hit a critical part in the skull. Or the bottle fell on his head." It was quite apparent that he did not believe in these theories, but the Smashers were grateful for his optimism.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"I don't think that was an accident."

"What makes you say that?"

"The bottle was broken at the _bottom_," said Samus thoughtfully.

"What difference does that make?" asked Captain Falcon.

"If it had fallen out of the cupboard, it would have swayed and hit his head at the middle. The bottle realistically would have been split at the _middle_."

It was almost noon by then. The Smashers, after Master had removed Ganondorf from the building, had gone immediately back to sleep wanting to forget the incident. Then they had all risen and said nothing about it. But hardly a word was said in general, and they had spread out amongst the many rooms to consult each other separately. Samus and Captain Falcon had chosen to remain in the living room alone.

The two generally held a more neutral relationship. They were annoyed at each other easily and, both being bounty hunters at one point, were at each other's throats many times. Samus often consulted him first, though, because Captain Falcon contradicted her so well, found any excuse to question her reason and challenge her authority and that helped her thought process improve.

"So you're saying Ganon was murdered," he said.

"In cold blood."

"You think Zelda did it?"

"No. I don't think she was the first one there, either. I heard footsteps downstairs before she even opened her door."

He was about to make a comment about why she was awake when those footsteps sounded, but Peach walked in from the kitchen and smiled slightly. "Lunch is ready," she said. "Help yourselves."

It was a tense meal. Bowser, Falco, Luigi, Marth, Roy, Kirby, Ness and Pikachu took their portion into the living room to eat, while the rest settled into the dining room. Master was eating in his office. They didn't look at each other, nor did they utter a single word. Unnerved was the general expression of the Smashers, Captain Falcon decided as he looked at everyone at the table. According to what Samus had said, there was a chance that Ganondorf had been murdered, and if so who ever had done it was probably still hanging around somewhere...

He regarded everyone silently while pretending to concentrate on his lunch. No one seemed confident. Nor did anyone seem horribly paranoid. They had chosen to forget last night, what had happened. Probably that was the best thing to do then.

There was laughter coming from the living room, strangely. Then the noise abruptly stopped and someone gave a shout. The Smashers put down their forks and turned towards the coming silence.

Mr. Game & Watch slid through the door and pointed frantically into the next room. Peach glanced at Zelda and followed the character out.

Kirby was on the floor, color faded from his small body, lying still. Marth was kneeling over him, Ness clutching his tunic until his knuckles turned white. Everyone else present was completely silent. Bowser was leaning against the wall again, watching silently. Luigi, Falco, and Roy had frozen in shock with their plates in their laps, blinking. Peach walked over to Kirby and looked at him, and then at Marth. Marth shook his head very slowly.

"Kirby!" cried Ness.

"What happened?" asked Peach shakily.

"I was telling a joke," said Roy, "and we were all laughing, but then Kirby started choking and before we knew it he was on the floor..." He trailed off. "Is he really...gone?"

"I don't feel a heartbeat," said Marth with a sigh, flinching as Ness dug his fingers into his flesh reflexively.

"This is hardly a coincidence," a voice said from the doorway, and they turned to look at Master. He pointed just to the discarded plate, where a slip of paper stuck out from underneath. Marth pulled it out and handed it to him. The rest of the Smashers started to file into the room curiously. "This looks like a poem..." he muttered, and then read aloud:

_ "A simple game of cat and mouse; _

_ the one who wins will free this house_

_ from a sadist come to claim the will_

_ of the master someone has already killed,_

_ but he is not the only one,_

_ for within a week there will be but none_

_ who stand ready to claim the lives_

_ of those who have not survived_

_ the ordeal of which this death now seals. _

_ Now you'll be sure to check your meals!" _

"So it was poison," said Roy, a little relieved that he hadn't caused Kirby to choke to death, but afraid for what this meant.

Master looked from one face to the other with hard, sharp eyes. "Who among us dares butcher our cause?"

_ So it is one of us,_ thought Captain Falcon warily.

They stared at one another, trying to take in this new situation, but none could think of the other doing such a horrible thing. The Smashers had known each other for two years, one year at the most, and it was simply unimaginable that a Smasher would kill another with purpose. Clearly one of them had changed more than they were letting on, for the fighters Master had trained and loved were far from murderers. Who ever it was, he or she obviously wasn't going to confess.

Master narrowed his eyes dangerously. "I'm putting the Headquarters on a system lockdown. Who ever you are, you're not going to get away with this."

He turned and left for the control center, wondering if he had made his last mistake.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Peach rubbed the already dry dish in her hands until the friction started to wear down the cloth, staring out the window. Well, she would have been staring out of it, had it not been covered by the strongest metal on the planet. It was the flawless security system that Samus had designed as her contribution to the League. Most of the Smashers had given a contribution in honor of their alliance to improve the Headquarters. This security system didn't make her feel secure at all. This was a trap. She couldn't shake the feeling that they had all come here just to be cornered and ushered into an early death.

She jumped slightly when Zelda put a hand on her shoulder.

"You've been cleaning that plate for five minutes," she said.

Peach sighed lowered the plate onto a rack. "I know, but I can't think of what else to do."

"You should come in and sit with us. There's no more to do in the kitchen."

It had been maybe two hours after dinner. The day seemed to have zipped by somehow, considering the bleak circumstances. They had kept each a reasonable distance from each other, traveled in pairs or groups in the hallways. Master had once again retreated to his office, so it was assumed. Nearly everyone was present in the living room. It was the fulcrum of the Headquarters, so they all felt most comfortable there.

When Zelda returned, she was surprised to see Captain Falcon was engaged in conversation with Link.

"It might not be one of us," Captain Falcon was saying, "It may be just a ruse to make us paranoid."

"What other explanation is there?" asked Link incredulously, just as taken aback with the sudden strike of banter.

"I was thinking," he said, leaning closer and speaking in a low voice, "maybe Master has it in for us."

"Master!" exclaimed Zelda. "Why would he do such a thing? He's taken care of us! Raised us like his own children!"

Captain Falcon shrugged. "It was just a thought. I don't have any good evidence, I'm just using logical thinking."

"I fail to see any logic in _that_ thinking. Where is Samus, anyway?"

He paused. "I don't know. What do you think that poem meant? Who has the paper?"

Peach rolled her eyes. "Ironically, Samus has it."

"Right then. I'll go have a look at that." Captain Falcon rose and went out of the room. He passed through the corridor to the great hall, where the control room opened up into a majestic room with a cathedral ceiling where the coat rack was and the minor supply boxes remained stacked. Otherwise, the room was kept empty to emphasize the tremendous echo, for there were not even carpets. Along the halls hung complete silence, almost eerie solitude where the metal coverings had blocked the windows and darkened the entire building.

When he came to the great hall he stopped. Samus' back was about five feet in front of him, how far she had gone in before she too had been chilled. The atmosphere was cold and dark, since the hall had no light and relied now on the glow from the hallway chandelier and the control room. In the middle of the room on the floor there was a small puddle of blood, and soaked in it was the poem paper. On the direct other side of the room, almost at a similar length from the puddle as Samus, stood Luigi in the doorway to the control room, staring up at the ceiling, face pale. A wrench was slack in his hand, and looked like it was about to slip in between his fingers.

Captain Falcon finally gathered the courage to look up. The cathedral ceiling was about half as tall as the Headquarters, which made it as high as two stories (each story was about a foot above Bowser's head). The only way to reach the top was a drop-ladder that ran only part way down from the top, and that was there to replace bulbs in the chandelier. But the chandelier was not there. Instead, there was Master. He had been hung from the hook normally used for the light, and looked to have been dead for only five minutes at most. His shoulder had been cut open and was the source of the blood still dripping onto the floor.

He stumbled back and caught himself on the wall. There went his theory. He immediately forgot about his quest for the paper.

"It's recent," he announced to no one in particular, drawing his gun, "I'm going to go find this bastard before he ruins anyone else!" And then he retreated into the hallway again, and no one paid much attention to him.

Samus hadn't even noticed he was there until he spoke, and when he did, she lowered her eyes from the dreadful scene, seemingly simultaneously with Luigi for she found herself caught in a mild stare-down. Since yelling across the room would create a ruckus, she walked over to him, skipping around the stain.

"What," she said simply.

He didn't look at her again. "There...was a malfunction with the computer," he said in a thick, unsteady voice. "Master pulled me out to help him find the problem. When I couldn't find the cause, he left to call you in. He didn't come back for ten minutes, so I started to look for him and...there he is. I didn't hear a thing--the system was too loud."

She didn't hear the system at all.

"I restarted it," he said when she questioned that.

She peered in at the computer, which was indeed starting back up again, but made a single mental note: _There are two people of the whole League that can reach that ladder, and you are one of them._ The suspicions she had were thick and highly probable, but still they were incomprehensible. Why would _anyone_ kill Master?

"Can you climb up there and get him down?"

He looked at her and blinked. "N-no, at least I don't think so... We could...shoot the rope, but..."

She raised an eyebrow. "But what?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. It was irrelevant."

When there was nothing left to say, she slipped out of the room. He followed--tentatively, for he sensed her suspicion. The rest of the Smashers were devastated; Master had seemed like their best protection. If he was gone, surely there was no hope for them?

"Well then, let's just beat it out of here," said Falco. "If we stay here, we're just going to become nervous wrecks."

"We'll have to shut the security system down then--" started Marth, and then he cut himself off.

"Wait..._please_ don't tell me Master was the only one here who knew the security code," said Roy.

Luigi looked down at the floor. "He was. Even if we did know the code, the computer's offline. I'll try to get it back up tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!" shouted Ness. "Tomorrow we might not even be here!"

The plumber backed away. "I wasn't intending to put it off out of sheer laziness! We're all so stressed out right now that we can barely concentrate!"

Peach knelt down and touched Ness' shoulder gently. He allowed her to embrace him but stubbornly refused to cry. Bowser watched them silently. Something was amiss. The room didn't look right for some reason. Was someone absent...?

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**I'm sorry this seems like it's going too fast, even though this is like 2000 words or so. It's just that putting in too many details per day would elongate it and bore you, and I'm a big fan of dramatic attention-getters, suspenseful lead-ups, dynamic dialogues, and the like. Also, Ganondorf died just before midnight on Day 1. I know I didn't make that clear, but it counts as a Day 1 death. **

**All your reviews are belong to me. **


	3. Day III

**On the third day, they rose again.**

**Death List: Ganondorf, Kirby, Master **

**ON A SIDE NOTE: I realize I'm walking a fine line between the T and M ratings, so if you think after this chapter I should bump it up to M, tell me! **

Predator

_Day III _

The morning did not get off to a very good start. Link found himself skipping backward in the hallways and rooms, keeping his sights all around to make sure he wasn't being watched. Of course, he didn't do this around Zelda, because it would only dismay and worry her. He didn't want to make her paranoid. Who he found himself worrying about instead though, was Ness. The boy seemed to drift in his step, slow and gliding like he wasn't really touching the floor but making sure he didn't fall through it. He was completely placid, despite Mr. Game & Watch's valiant efforts to pep him up.

Maybe it was depression...? That wouldn't be surprising. After all, he had watched his only friend present die in front of him, which would surely disturb anyone.

They ate breakfast slowly, cautiously. Kirby's death was a strong reminder of the capabilities of poison. Immediately after breakfast, they split up in small groups to other rooms of the house. The two princesses and the three swordsmen went to play a game of pool in the game room. Falco stayed in the living room, lying on the couch lazily. Luigi had attempted to lock himself in the control room, but Samus had squeezed in and insisted on seeing for herself what the problem was. Mr. Game & Watch, Pikachu, and Ness were keeping company in the dining room. Bowser, who also had stayed in the living room, now decided to walk off and explore.

He had succeeded in keeping his mouth shut since Ganondorf was taken away. He saw silence as the best way to prove his innocence. If three were already gone, he knew that the only way he could survive was by going off by himself. He worked better alone, anyway. He walked past the stairs and by the game room where he heard Roy talking about who _he_ thought was doing this, and then Marth's voice that completely contradicted the first, and then Zelda jumping in to say that it didn't matter, we just have to stick together and we'll be fine.

Of course it didn't matter. We're all dying. If you stick together, you're just one step away from the murderer. But when he neared the edge of the hallway, a flash of color caught his eye. The hallway cut off into another staircase on the right side parallel to the game room. At the corner connecting the staircase to the rest of the hallway was a dark stain. He flared his nostrils and blew smoke out in disgust. It was blood, all right. Two minutes dry. He glanced up the stairs. There were a few dark spots where the carpet was marked also. He stopped and considered. Maybe it was stupid, but he had nothing else to do.

He trekked upstairs. The trail led down the hallway, past all of the rooms and up the next flight of stairs to the next hallway of rooms. _You stupid fool_, he thought, _you're walking to your death_. It led up all the way to the attic, and he knew who he would find. The attic was a flat room with a low ceiling, and he had to stoop a little to get in. His foot landed in something sticky. Blood again. Wait. Bad sign, bad sign, bad sign, if this is still wet... He looked behind him, in front of him, to his side. Nothing but darkness. From the stairs came a faint light that sprayed to the back of the room where a dark figure sat against the wall against exposed insulin. Captain Falcon, no doubt. He had gone out in search of the murderer. Well, Falcon, you found him--and he found you.

Seeing all he needed to see, Bowser stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. As he walked down the hallway again the shadows seemed to swallow him up. _Clouds covering the sunlight. Wait, the windows are blocked--!_

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

"You don't honestly think it was Bowser?" asked Peach worriedly.

"Why do you care?" asked Roy. "I thought you two hated each other."

"Hate is a strong word," murmured Peach. "There are hard feelings, yes, but we don't _hate_ each other. Why do you think he did it?"

"I don't know. He was acting a little suspicious. It's not like Bowser to stay quiet for so long."

Zelda thought for a moment. "You know," she said keeping her voice low, "Last night, I wasn't the one who found Ganondorf. Bowser was down there already leaning against the wall trying to act casual."

"What!" exclaimed Link. "Why didn't you tell anybody?"

"He didn't look like he did it. He was just...observing. Being completely passive. In fact, I just _know_ he didn't have anything to do with it."

They didn't question her. Zelda had a sixth sense for people's personalities sometimes, being able to tell the liars from the humble, and other characteristics that determined safety or danger. What she said about someone usually stood uncorrected and was later proven right. Then why, wondered Marth secretly, couldn't she just tell us the most capable person of murder before we got into this horrible mess?

"Samus seems to have taken up this case on her own, don't you think?" said Marth. "She's watching everyone like a hawk."

Peach frowned. "Hanging over poor Luigi's shoulder all morning, keeping him so jumpy that he can't concentrate on fixing the computer. I just don't picture _any_ of us killing! It seems so absurd." She ran her hand through her hair and stopped at the top of her head. "Oh! I didn't bring my crown. I feel so awkward without it..." She started for the door.

"Wait," said Roy, "do you want me to go with you?"

She smiled but shook her head. "No, I'll be fine, I'm sure."

When she was gone, the four of them exchanged glances. "Have you seen Falcon at all today?" asked Marth.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

"Check the connection."

"The connection is perfectly fine."

"The wiring?"

"Uncrossed, un-frayed, _also_ perfectly fine. Do you want me to check the keyboard for crumbs?"

Samus frowned. "No, I want you to stop sassing me and fix the damn thing."

"As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with it," said Luigi through clenched teeth. "There's only so much I can do without setting off an alarm. The files are protected by _your_ security system that _you_ should have remembered the password to so _you_ should know how to do this."

"I promised Master he didn't have to tell me the password, so I _don't _know it. I programmed the system, but you're the only one who knows how to access the files with the password, so it makes no difference what I know or that I created it."

"How can I access something when I don't know how to find it?"

"_Move._" She pushed him out of the chair and stretched out over the keyboard. "_I'll_ find it."

"You're welcome," he grumbled, brushing imaginary dust from his pant leg. Samus was being especially unbearable today, whether it was anxiousness or the absence of Captain Falcon, who could have just still been asleep. He knew straight off when she spoke to him that morning that she wasn't going to let him alone at all. Just because he had been the last one with Master yesterday. Just because it gave her a reason to exercise power over him.

She probably didn't even understand the pop-ups on the computer that could have been tracked back to their files and explored from there, the usually forbidden folders that could hold some key to understanding at least the number of digits in the code. She wouldn't think of that. She would think out of the box in attempts to outsmart the unit and end up going around in circles. He didn't say anything though, just stood up and watched, and when that became tiresome, he tried to remember the poem.

Didn't it say something about Master's death? The little note, submerged in blood on the floor of the great hall... Master had copied the note while the computer was acting oddly the day before, mere seconds before he went out into the hall and never returned. Where was it though? Luigi drifted away from Samus and checked the desk across the room. It was in the second drawer.

_...the one who wins will free this house_

_from a sadist come to claim the will_

_of the master someone has already killed..._

It was preplanned to every last detail. The killer spooks Master into locking down the house, and it said _right there_ that Master would die right after, so that no one could escape, everyone would be trapped. Had it even crossed Master's mind to actually interpret the threat? His death written right in front of him? No, he had been blinded by disgust. He's jeopardized us all with his ignorance. The poem had said something about a week. A week to live? No, a week to survive. 'The one who wins will free this house.' If one person could stay alive, the house would open again midnight on Wednesday? Would the person just go on with a new life, or would the process reverse completely and revive all of their dead?

He went to put the copy back into the desk and instead this time chose the third drawer down. A curious smell stemmed from beneath the wood, but the compartment was empty. What is that...? It was familiar, he had come across it before, but couldn't place it. Wasn't it just yesterday? ...Oh... He slipped the note into his pocket and swallowed before making sure Samus wasn't looking. She was focused on the screen. He could guess what was in the fourth drawer. He opened it very slowly, so the wood wouldn't scrap and make noise.

A hand gun, still warm but no longer smoking. A magnum, the type of gun Captain Falcon always wore holstered to his side. The barrel had a small amount of blood on it, the most of which had dripped off and soaked into the wood, creating the source of odor. Sickened, Luigi closed the drawer and pretended to take interest in what Samus was doing on the computer. The only way you get blood on a gun like that is sticking the barrel right into a person's body and shooting. Just as the color started to return to his face, she looked back at him.

"This is impossible. Somebody's messed with this. It's not responding to any of my passwords."

He raised his eyebrows and said nothing. There was a parade of beeping coming from the great hall, and Mr. Game & Watch flagged them to the other Smashers.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

Falco hung back from the rest as they circled and inspected Captain Falcon's body, laying in the first floor bathtub with the water turned up to scalding. He had been beaten, twisted, and broken to a nearly red, unrecognizable state. He was rather unpleasant to look at, but Falco had the shock already of finding him behind the curtain just before the tub overflowed and nothing would bother the bird too much for a while.

Link and Marth wouldn't dare touch him, but instead closed the shower curtain and advised everyone to use the upstairs bathroom instead from now on. Roy had taken a sick Zelda away from the scene mere minutes ago. Ness and Pikachu had been kept away from the doorway with much effort, and Mr. Game & Watch was just now returning with Samus. She walked right in to see, cursing and vowing revenge on whomever. Luigi angled away from the door and slid Falco a get-over-here-now look.

"Is his gun on him?" he whispered.

Falco peered into the room and flinched. "No. Did he have it?"

"He had it last night before no one seemed to notice his disappearance."

"But not now. You know where it is, I take it."

"In a desk drawer in the computer room, with a bloody nose."

"You're taking a risk by telling me this."

"I had to tell _someone_. This is a game, remember? Want to form an alliance?"

Falco laughed softly. "Sure. Not like we can vote anyone off _this _island. Someone else seems to be making the decision for us."

Link, Marth, and Samus walked out and closed the door behind them. Had there been a lock, they would have used it for sure. The five of them stood and stared at each other for a moment, and then a thud from above them diverted their attention.

"That's from a dorm roo--" Marth started, and then a scream tore through the building. Only when they passed Falchion sticking out of a hallway wall light post with its tip bloodied did Marth notice that it was not in his sheath.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

Peach stumbled out of her room with her crown in her hands, panting. She swayed and fell against her door, closing it. She wondered how many people she had attracted by screaming. She wished she hadn't; her throat burned. She slid down and pulled her knees to her chest, tucking her head under. _I'm going to be sick...I'm never going back in my room again! _

"Peach!" Ness shouted from down the hallway. He ran to her with Pikachu just ahead of him. Normally she wouldn't have moved, but this was a child calling her name and she felt the need to protect him. "The others are on their way," he said when he stopped beside her. "What's wrong?"

"I-I'm fine. I just..." She bit her lip, not able to say it. Her vision blurred with tears. Unsure of what to do, Ness clumsily brushed them away with the back of his hand. Peach reached out and hugged him gratefully as Pikachu curled up in her lap. Then more footsteps approached. She let go of Ness and tried to stand up, still finding it hard and using the doorknob for leverage.

"Peach!" Samus sprinted ahead worriedly, sliding in beside her. "What happened!"

She started to open her mouth to say something, but found she couldn't. She could have said anything else. Why must everyone demand an explanation for everything? She felt herself go lightheaded as Link and Marth arrived. She merely pointed to the room. Link started to reach for the door, but Peach flailed out.

"No! Don't go in there!" Then she covered her mouth and moaned, swaying sickly, breathing short.

Samus caught and steadied her gently. "Check it, we'll be right back." She took her towards the third floor bathroom and Pikachu followed them. Ness hesitated.

"Go with them," said Link sternly. Once the boy was gone, he turned to the door in front of him. "Well? We've already got two princesses in the bathrooms. If anyone else goes, there's going to be a mess."

"It's nothing _dangerous_," said Marth. "If it was, she may have been harmed. She just looked shocked."

The Hylian opened the door and looked at the far wall, where the balcony was. "I'll go in. I'll tell you if it's okay."

He walked in. He didn't see it at first, but it was definitely something you would notice at first glance, and he almost shouted at once, instead covering his mouth as Peach had and biting his fingers. The room was otherwise clean and untouched. But on the left wall, was something that had not been there before, and Link wished it still hadn't been there. It was a trophy, the kind you attach to a plaque and hang on a wall and show off to fellow hunters. It was the head of Bowser. Who ever this murderer was, he was a clean cut. The bullet hole in the head of the trophy had even been covered almost flawlessly. The koopa's mouth was parted, and his eyes were wide open. Engraved under the head on a golden plate were the letters 'R.I.P.'

Link backed out of the room and shut the door behind him. "It's okay, but I strongly advise against satisfying your curiosity."

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

The rest of Bowser was never found. The Smashers were thankful for that much. True to the vow to herself, Peach never went back into her room. Link was courteous enough to go in and pull her suitcase out, though he didn't venture into her bathroom for her brush. Five seconds in that room was too long. Peach was offered a blow-up mattress in Zelda's quarters, and it was quickly taken up. What they didn't anticipate, was that she wouldn't need the mattress at all.

The Smashers had gathered up the courage enough to take the body of Captain Falcon and lay him in his respective bed. The room was sealed and quarantined, in case there was any risk of forgetting what was inside. There wasn't a risk. No one would ever forget, probably. Still, Luigi and Falco refused to journey up the cathedral ceiling to retrieve Master, and Falco also refused to shoot him down. It's a thick rope, he argued, don't go in there and he won't ever fall on you anyway.

But later that day, Samus walked out after dinner to try and fix the computer again. When she was out of the room, Luigi pulled the poem out of his pocket and passed it around the table. It became the prime topic of discussion. Zelda finally resigned to try and interpret it more thoroughly in the living room.

This time, instead of splitting into separate groups in different rooms, they all stayed together in the room, save for Peach and Mr. Game & Watch, who were in the kitchen. They tried to start up a casual conversation, for the two in the kitchen could hear them, but it always fell out in less than five minutes. Their desperateness for a normal life was fruitless. When the dishwasher buzzed, Peach sighed and turned it off. They didn't need very much silverware anymore anyway. Mr. Game & Watch pulled on her skirt.

She looked down to him and he gestured to the stove. It was still on. She gave him an odd look. He went to stove and pressed one of the buttons, but it didn't turn off, change settings or anything. It had acted a little strange earlier--the burner wouldn't light for fifteen seconds. Cheap old thing, it had only been there for two years and it was already breaking. She took the pans off the stove and put her hand over it. No heat was radiating. Was that a cool breeze...? Mr. Game & Watch cocked his head to one side.

"Can you go fetch Luigi for me?" she asked. She hated using him as her Mr. Fix-it, but he had a knack for dismantling things and putting them together again.

The little figure disappeared and she looked over the buttons, pressed a few, and nothing happened. It didn't heat up, cool down, or switch to oven heat. The oven remained turned off. A moment later Luigi came in and Mr. Game & Watch went back to organizing the plates and silverware.

"Oven off?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Burner off?"

"No."

"What's the temperature?"

"Average. It won't respond at all."

"Is the button stuck?"

She hadn't thought of that. She jiggled the dial a little. "Yes."

He tapped the dial, and then gripped it in one hand, levering his foot on the oven door, and pulled. When it didn't move, he used both hands and feet and pulled harder.

"You'll rip it off!" cried Peach. She started to notice a faint hissing noise.

He turned to look at with both feet still bent on the oven door and said nothing for a moment, but looked absurd in that position. Then he got down and waved his hand over the gas burner. He flinched. "Game & Watch," he said and the black silhouette waved to him, "could you go find me a wrench? It's back in the computer room. Don't tell Samus anything if she questions it. Quickly." He turned. "Princess, hold the door here open, I need to stop it from the inside."

But Mr. Game & Watch didn't have to go to all that trouble. He wasn't five feet from the kitchen door when there was a sharp clang, and then that clang was drowned out by the explosion. The floor shook slightly and those in the living room jumped or gave a shout. Roy jolted back so far, his chair flipped over on top of him. Then the far wall erupted in flames, and a blur of green went by the open door as Luigi was flung across the kitchen.

Link bounded to his feet and rushed for the door. Marth picked up the fire extinguisher hanging nearby and quickly sprayed the wall outside the kitchen, then went inside. Luigi was lying on the tile floor, breathing hard and staring up at the ceiling. He looked to be in a mild state of shock. His right leg had been burned badly by the explosion, but wasn't on fire. The stove was by now a large fireball and Marth emptied the rest of the canister on the flames, but by then, Peach was already long gone. Her body was still intact, but burnt so badly that her skin was raw.

"Holy _shit_," said Falco from the doorway.

"Close the door," ordered Link.

"Keep it open," whispered Luigi from the floor, and Falco hadn't noticed him until he spoke. "Gas leak... Need ventilation..."

"Jesus," said Falco, pulling the plumber up, pushing him on the wall to keep him steady. "Easy, Lu, your leg looks like it's about to fall off..."

"Feels like it too." He looked across and saw Peach lying on the ground dead. "_Sono così sciocco ignaro_..." he groaned.

Link looked at the mess. The oven was completely blown, and the fire had also crossed onto part of the dishwasher and a few cabinets were charred black. "Did the stove malfunction?"

"The burner started spewing gas, and I was going to turn it off when something sparked," replied Luigi with one hand over his face. "Peach pushed me out of the way before the explosion hit..."

Marth furrowed his brow. "An oven doesn't just break down like that after only two years."

"I guess Zelda won't have a roommate after all," said Link sadly.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

**The chapters seem to be increasing word number by 1000, but that's okay, I guess. This is probably as bad (in the graphicness) as it's going to get, and I don't think this is M rated material, but if it is, you'd tell me, right? I'd be happy to move it if it comes to that, but I still doubt that I'd have to. I'm not known for writing bloody stories, mostly just _dark _stories. **

**SHINY PURPLE BUTTON! Come on--I know you want to. **


	4. Day IV

**I guess the button _is_ more of a bluish-lavender...**

**In case you forgot--**

**Death List: Ganondorf, Kirby, Master, Captain Falcon, Bowser, Peach**

Predator

_Day IV_

Link, Roy, Marth, and Zelda kept each other sane by sitting in the living room and talking about other things. But eventually those other things weren't holding the conversation and Ness would come to them and ask innocent but gut-wrenching questions such as _when are we getting out of here? _or _if the oven is gone, how are we going to eat meat?_ or the one that confused them until further inspection _why is Samus so angry at Luigi?_

Indeed, Samus continued to get edgier and edgier as the days progressed. Ever since Captain Falcon's death she had been particularly unbearable, and although she settled down a little more the previous afternoon, the news about Peach started her up once more. As soon as she found this out, she became quiet the rest of the day, and just after breakfast Ness had come in panic stricken that she was harassing Luigi and threatening him. Some of them followed Ness and found that Samus had Luigi pinned to the wall, relaying every piece of evidence against him, and he, getting thoroughly annoyed, was about to hit her when Falco pulled to two apart.

It was a minor setback to everyone's pride, but Samus consistently made an obvious point of keeping Luigi in her sights at all times. The computer remained untouched for the rest of the day, and no progress was made on retrieving the code. Very slowly, everyone seemed to be changing personalities back and forth--frightened to paranoid, anger to rigor, distress to hysteria.

As usual, the living room remained a constant haven, where everyone could watch each other. Up to lunch time, after they had all worn out the microwave preparing small inadequate meals such as hot dogs or sandwiches, no one was harmed. Lunch was so empty-feeling that Marth decided to go retrieve dessert from the cellar, and would anyone like some? There were multiple replies, so the frozen cake seemed to be the best answer.

And when Marth was downstairs and everyone else was sitting in the living room, they all looked at each other and pondered their predicament. Zelda hadn't interpreted the note the night before because Peach's fate had upset her so much, not to mention the fact that the note itself was in Peach's room. She didn't want to go back upstairs though. Instead she started to count off beams on the ceiling. It was meaningless, but it was her way of occupying her mind so she didn't have to deal with the stress.

Everyone had their own methods. Link, who was sitting beside Zelda on the sofa, had his arm around her shoulders and was absently running his fingers through her hair. Ness had Pikachu in his lap, softly speaking to him so no one else could hear. Falco was polishing his blaster, no matter how clean it became. Roy continued to rock back and forth in his chair despite how surprising it had been to have it topple over him not long ago. Mr. Game & Watch was on the floor under Ness' feet, waving his arms and legs in the motion of making a snow angel. Luigi, upside-down in his chair, legs hanging over the back of the seat, would taunt Samus when no one else was looking. Samus, who was sitting stiffly in her chair, glared right back at him. Every so often Falco would look between the two and shrug with suppressed laughter.

Zelda failed see the humor in this development. Roy was getting anxious now, and stepped up from his chair and checked the clock on the microwave. About ten minutes had passed, and it went quickly. The atmosphere in the room when everyone registered that Marth was still absent. Roy stepped downstairs on that note. Most of the others started to sit up straighter and looked on. Luigi, however, stayed exactly how he was and raised an eyebrow at Samus. It was a direct challenge.

"Don't give me that look, smartass," she hissed.

"I'd much rather be a smartass than a dumbass," he replied with a shrug.

"Oooh," crowed Falco.

"Stop it, you two," said Link.

"As if it isn't so obvious how much you're sucking up!" exclaimed Samus, "Helping Peach fix the oven? And you're trying _so hard_ on getting the computer running again! Bah."

"I might be, if you hadn't deliberately locked me out," growled Luigi.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Falco cut in. "Don't go any further or we'll have to tie you to your chairs!"

There was a shout of agony from the cellar and they stopped bickering and watched Roy ascend the stairs halfway. "Light the fireplace! Marth's frozen solid! Link!"

"What?!" Zelda gasped.

Link and Roy jumped back downstairs together. The cellar had two main points to it: the supply closet--storage for tournament items and such--and the freezer--storage for extra food and other things that needed to be kept frozen. There were a number of normal things you would find in the big ice box--but Marth was not one of them. If you looked into the small viewer window, you could see his frozen face, his fists pressed onto the iced glass in desperate need of attention.

Roy pulled at the door frantically. "It's frozen shut from the inside!" He pointed to the temperature dial, which had been turned down as far as it would go. The button on the wall next to the dial read 'safety lock.' Ironically, the safety lock was going to kill someone if the door wasn't opened soon.

"We'll cut him out," said Link, unsheathing the Master Sword. "Take the right side, stop if you think you're...well..."

"Got it." They didn't want to accidentally cut Marth in half. Roy took out his own sword. They poked the tips of their blades in through the metal and pushed until they could pull down and slowly slice through it. The metal creaked and sent gusts of cold air around them. Then, finally, they cut the top of the door out and together tore the hole out. Roy got down on his knees and took off his shirt, rubbing it into the ice surrounding Marth's feet so they could take him somewhere else. When the ice melted fairly enough, Link helped him hoist the frozen body carefully upstairs.

Zelda gave a shrill cry when they brought him in. The fire was already going in the hearth; Ness was prodding it to keep it going. Samus looked mildly surprised at Marth's condition, as if she hadn't believed it could actually happen. It _was_ hard to believe in less than fifteen minutes. Luigi sat in front of the fire, forming a flame in his hand, and gestured to the ground.

"We've got this one all planned out," said Zelda.

"We're not losing anyone else," said Falco, sitting in between Ness and Luigi with a large bowl of warm water in his lap.

They set Marth down face-up in front of the fire on the rug. Ness opened the doors of the fireplace so more heat could circulate. Then everyone sat together in a circle around Marth and made an effort to bring him back. Seven pairs of hands worked together to save a dwindling life. It was the probably the first and last time since this whole mess started that they were truly united.

It took another ten minutes before progress started to show. The ice was gone, the body warming slowly, and then a twitch of Marth's fingers gave them all hope. Samus felt for a pulse and nodded. Pikachu jumped down from Zelda's shoulder and licked Marth's face. They rejoiced when he opened his eyes.

"Don't waste your energy moving," admonished Roy, wiping a warm-water cloth over the prince's forehead. "Just practice breathing."

There was a high-pitched beeping noise coming from the hallway.

"Hey, Mr. Game & Watch must have found something!" exclaimed Ness, jumping up to go check. Everyone but Roy left the room then.

"The excitement's getting to them," he said.

Marth tilted his head towards him. "No one followed me downstairs," he said weakly. "Someone pushed me into the freezer and locked it."

"You didn't see who?"

"No...How could it have been one of you if no one followed me? I would have heard. Who ever pushed me was already down there..."

This was very disturbing news. What if it wasn't one of the Smashers at all? Or what if one of them had faked their death and was still running rampant about the Headquarters? That wasn't possible... All of the bodies were clearly dead. ...Unless a Smasher came and didn't announce himself. Roy sat and stared at his friend until he heard his name called from the fourth floor. He promised Marth he would come back immediately, forgetting his own predictions and leaving to investigate. On the way through the dorm hallways, he poked his head through the doors of the dead and checked. Everyone was accounted for except Bowser's body, of course.

On the top floor, all of the remaining Smashers were gathered at the front of Master's office. The office took up the entire third floor almost, where all files on the fighters and records on battles were kept. There was a record player just outside of the doorway sitting on one of the window sills. It was spinning, but the record had run out.

"My God," muttered Samus from inside. "This guy is even more than sick-minded than we thought."

Mr. Game & Watch had been found in five pieces, five little even strips of black, flapping fiber twitching with every movement's wind. The paper shredder was dismantled into it's two separate parts, the actually shredding part having been set on its side as the little two-dimensional figure was fed through like any other of Master's documents. Falco kicked the record player and the same sound of Mr. Game & Watch's beeping came on.

"He can be the most sadistic bastard in town, but he's smart enough to trick all of us," he said.

"But why the player?" wailed Ness. "What's the point?"

"To get us to come up here and find this," said Samus, and she was looking at Roy. "So Game & Watch could have died anytime between finding Marth and use hearing that noise, and no one was paying any attention."

And while they were all up here on the third floor, Marth was two floors below them all alone and completely helpless.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Roy didn't bother telling the others of his suspicions, for he figured when they got downstairs they would find Marth dead and draw the conclusion themselves. However, Marth seemed to die peacefully out of the after effects of his ordeal--a heart too chilled by then to be saved by any amount of heat. So the suspicions remained open to anyone in the room. Now if he told them, though, he knew that they would either not believe it or suspect him of covering for his own deeds.

The trick remained to not draw attention to yourself, stay quiet like Bowser had and maybe they'll forget you're there. Normally there would be a few of them to be left alone in any case, not having the capabilities to murder everyone here. Ness might have gone undisturbed if it wasn't for his psychic powers, and the Smashers had no clue how much he might have trained himself over two years. Pikachu was still a debated issue--he could not pick up a wine bottle, nor have the power to push Marth into the freezer. Captain Falcon's fate proved that in a house full of fighters, it was possible for any one to have murdered, even Pikachu.

But the key fact was that everyone except Mr. Game & Watch had been in the living room during the time Marth had been _pushed_, not tripped on accident, but deliberately pushed into the freezer. It was possible that Mr. Game & Watch could have slipped in and out unnoticed, but why then would he put himself through a paper shredder? It made no sense, but then neither did anything else.

Then there was the kitchen incident. Mr. Game & Watch had been the last one _out_ of the kitchen, but he had also been _told_ to leave. By who? By Luigi, probably? What actually was going on in the kitchen at the time was unknown, for he refused to talk about it. That would form a spark of curiosity in anyone, not talking about a scene that he might have caused. It had of course assured Samus. Or did he simply decline talking about it to keep from remembering? And the noise, the small, tiny noise that only a handful of them really noticed--what was that? It was a sharp clang, like metal against metal. The pipe in the stove could have broken...but it would need something to _ignite _the fire. Going back, it sort of reminded Roy of a gun shot hitting metal. Falco had been in the living room, and there were no other guns mentioned to be in the building. Or perhaps Luigi had purposely created the spark and the noise, but then why would he have let himself get hit by the explosion?

And Falco was just as cryptic. He had never really gotten along decently with anyone in the League. He had the tendency to throw in his two cents and annoy them sometimes, but otherwise he was just...there. He didn't talk much, but had that still, cocky air around him that made other people uneasy. He was still quiet for the most part, but the cockiness really only became apparent when someone else was in the hot seat. So in order to maintain his demeanor, he casually stayed near Luigi so he could know constantly that he was not the one to be blamed. But during nearly all of the murders, Falco had maintained an almost perfect alibi--he was with the rest in the living room when Master Hand, Marth, and Peach were killed. Ness, when asked, had affirmed that Falco had stayed in the living room also all throughout Bowser's disappearance, and was asleep on the couch prior to Captain Falcon's death.

Captain Falcon was a complete toss-up, though. They had no telling of when he died, or where, but the blood in the bathtub was strictly from his body soaking in the water.

The loopholes remained in Ganondorf and Kirby. Anyone had the chance to sneak out at night and hit Ganondorf, anyone could have dropped the slightest hint of poison on Kirby's plate.

But the gun shot...if that was what the noise was...

Samus had the perfect opportunity to set off the stove while Peach and Luigi were in the kitchen, and by doing so she would have the best spot available to innocently lay the blame on Luigi. She was the only one out of the living room at that time. It was unknown if she had actually brought a gun with her--as she wasn't wearing her power suit, they could assume a lot of things had changed. She also knew more about the security system than anyone else, but she had told them she didn't know the password.

And the cathedral ceiling...almost two stories high...

Link had just as good an alibi as Falco. He was accounted for in the living room during Peach's and Master's deaths, in the game room with Roy when Bowser clomped past the room, when Captain Falcon was found, and had helped carved Marth out of the freezer as well. Even with his longshot, he couldn't reach the cathedral ceiling, though. But in that case...

The ceiling was the complete mystery. Kirby could have flown up there, Ganondorf could have levitated, but they were already _dead_. There was the ladder halfway down the wall. That left only two possible options: Falco and Luigi, who were obviously the highest jumpers. But Falco couldn't have done it, so far as everyone else knew. Luigi had been holding a wrench, Samus said. Master's right shoulder had been savagely torn open, but a wrench couldn't do that without getting bloody, and certainly Luigi hadn't the time to clean it before Samus entered the room from the other side. Or had she seen him doing something suspicious that led to her guess?

Farore's wind came to his mind suddenly. Zelda had the magic capabilities to reach that height with no problems, but she wasn't nearly strong enough to take down Master, and--and Master could fly, couldn't he...?

Did Master kill himself...? But why the bloody shoulder?

It was all so confusing to behold. First Ganondorf. Then Kirby and Master. After that Captain Falcon and Bowser and Peach.

One...Two...Three...

Was the killer following a pattern? Would four people die today?

And that horrible scratching noise! _Scratch, scratch, scratch..._ Roy looked around at everyone else in the room, but no one was making a sound. Then his eyes locked with Link's. He was hearing it also. Ness, coming out of the kitchen with a piece of cake in his hands, glanced around the room and stopped, eyes wide.

"Where's Pikachu!" he demanded angrily.

_Scratch, scratch, scratch...bang_

Samus stood up and jerked her head towards the wall.

_Scratch, scratch, bang, scratch..._

"The ventilation system!" she said, and left for the control room at a dash.

Zelda gasped. Ness ran for the vent cover at the bottom of the wall, with some effort tore it from its place and yelled up the shaft, "PIKACHU!"

The little mouse replied immediately and frantically, voice a weak, wavering squeak.

"He's at the top somewhere!" he cried. "We've got to get him out of there before he burns up!"

Link fingered his sheath and froze. "My...my sword..." he murmured. He glanced at Roy. Now wasn't the time to stop and look for it. There were rafters along the ceiling, low enough that they might stand upon it. The Hylian pulled out his hookshot and put his arm around Roy, then used the hookshot to pull them both up to the closest rafter. They steadied on it cautiously. Link tapped on the wall in front of them and called out for Pikachu. He received a reply four feet to their right, and Pikachu continued to wail.

Luigi was below them, taking measurements on the wall. "The fans are about six feet to your _left_, so don't lead him too close to them."

Then Samus re-entered the room, panting. "The system is just as screwed up as the computer--I can't even turn the heat down!"

Roy began cutting into the wall a small square. The drywall peeled away and fell like snow to the floor. The fans became quite loud suddenly. Then a whole chunk of it fell through. "Pikachu, are you still there?" There was no reply but the constant cries of fear from inside. "Pikachu!"

"He can't hear you," yelled Luigi, "either the fans are drowning you out, or he's lost his hearing because it's too loud for his sensitive ears!"

Link stuck his hand through the hole and felt a tongue on his flesh. He reached out and a bundle of sweaty fur tumbled into his arms. Roy jumped down from the rafter and Link jumped after him. Pikachu started to scratch at Link, not able to tell the difference of temperature yet and thinking he was still trapped.

"Zelda, Falco, and Ness are running a cold bath, take him up there quickly."

He took Pikach away, and Roy almost followed but thought better of it. He didn't want to know what would surface if Luigi and Samus were left alone together in the same room.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

Falco sat in perpetual darkness on the arm of a recliner in the family room--the only room yet to be left bloodless. His eyes were watchful, sharp, attentive, as those of his animalistic kin. All of the doors in the Headquarters remained closed during night and the rest of the day after Peach's death; this way, if someone where to open a door without the Smashers' knowledge, they would surely hear and come investigate. It had been the only clever idea they had been able to come up with as an attempt to exploit the traitor. Whoever he, she, or it was.

He hadn't come to exploit anyone, though, nor did he hear a door open (the route from the upstairs into the living room had no door). He simply could not sleep. So he decided to stay up in this room, the largest in the building, just watching and listening. For what? It didn't matter. Entrapping himself inside his own room would do nothing but make him paranoid. Here, he could look over a broad expansion of space, touch his eyes to every object, no corner could hide anything from him. The clock in the hallway told him it was almost twelve. Most of them had gone to bed early around eight, unable to bear each other's presence any longer. In half an hour, maybe, it would be day five in this hell.

Why was he here again? Oh, yes. Fox thought it would be a great idea. Get away from the world out here! Go visit old friends! Now, all Fox had said could sum up to "go die somewhere, Falco."

There was a shuffle of feet from the stairwell, and he reflexively jerked off his perch to make out the incomer. Link stopped in the doorway and waited patiently for the bird to settle again, to recognize his face.

"What are you doing down here," demanded Falco.

The Hylian read his tone to be much thicker than usual. Was he scared for once? Were the killings finally affecting him as it had everyone else?

"You left your door open," said Link after a moment, "I heard someone moving down here."

_So you're just as restless as I am,_ thought Falco. Link didn't ask for the bird's own explanation. That was okay. Falco knew when to back off. Instead, he settled on the sofa.

"I'm going to stay up, I think," he said, "now that I'm awake. It'll just be harder to fall asleep."

"It gets harder to fall asleep for every night," sighed Link. He sat beside the bird and together they kept each other's company until the clock chimed the twelfth hour. Then, a quieter, much calmer footfall flowed down the stairs toward them. Someone else was running upstairs in the hallway at the same instance that the other steps were halfway down the stairwell. The two sounds overlapped and Roy shot through the doorway, didn't pass either of them a single glance, and then ran out the west door and disappeared into the house.

Link stood up and made to follow.

"Don't bother," said a placid voice from the doorway.

"What happened?" demanded Link.

Luigi pushed past him and lay down across the nearest recliner. "Ness is dead," he said in a low, almost impassive tone. "Died in his sleep, peacefully it seems. Pikachu is missing. There's blood on his bed, though, and so it won't be much of a surprise if we never see him again. Roy went looking for him. He remains hopeful."

It took Link and Falco a moment or two to register the ghastly shift of character that Luigi had taken over night. As he lay over the chair, twitching his feet up and down and staring at the ceiling through half-closed eyes, he looked as if he had just witnessed his own death over and over again, and now any natural scrape with such a tragedy would be nothing to him. Had it been Samus' constant accusations or simply the atmosphere that had transformed him into this state of dark indifference?

Zelda slipped into the room then, pale of face and still in her nightgown. She looked unable to speak, so Link offered her an embrace and led her to the sofa with him. Roy entered panting on the other side of the room as she sat down.

"Find anything?" asked Samus curtly as she came through from the steps also. Roy shook his head. She cursed under her breath, then leaned against the wall with a hand over her eyes. "That's number ten," she said. "The _tenth_ one! Are we _this _helpless?"

They sat for a moment and considered one another. Roy settled on the arm of the couch and watched everyone as Falco had not long ago. Unintentionally, his eyes fell on Zelda. She hadn't said a word since waking up, and her face was just _so pale_ that it was hard to resist jumping off the sofa and hugging her until she finally would tell him to stop. But Link would take care of her, he knew, and so Roy remained where he was. Looking at Link, though, he saw the Hylian attentive and concentrative. His long ears twitched every so often. He had better hearing than everyone else, probably. Then, whatever he had been listening to became louder, so Roy too could hear it slightly.

It was a sort of whistling, the kind of whistling sound that comes from a television when you leave it on but there's no picture. The faint sound that usually comes from electricity running through appliances that involve static build-up. No one else seemed to notice it at first. But as Roy scanned the room, he caught Luigi looking at the kitchen. From where he was sitting in the recliner, from how he was positioned hanging over the arm rest, he could probably see directly into the kitchen, somewhere near the refrigerator. He had stopped twitching his feet over the edge and was now, as Link was, just as attentive to the noise. Not two seconds later the sound escalated to a hiss, which not only caused the others to start paying attention, but Luigi swore and leapt out of his chair and ran into the kitchen.

"Was that the microwave...?" started Falco.

"What..." said Roy. Zelda and Samus were still quite confused, and Link jumped from his seat also and tried to follow. But before he reached the door, there came the second explosion that week. Then, after a moment Luigi stepped out of the door. There was blood on him, a splash of it like it had been filled into a water balloon and thrown at him, stretching from the right side of his face to halfway down his chest and arm. He wiped enough off so he could see and gave Link an insane sort of smile.

"Someone apparently thinks it's fun to toast Pikachu until he pops."

Link stood there and stared at him, aghast. So it wasn't just a detachment from the world. Luigi was really starting to lose his mind. Zelda almost fainted, and Roy caught her before she did.

Samus glared. "What do you mean?"

"What do you think it means, you silly girl," laughed Luigi, "someone tossed him into the microwave oven and set it on the 'large meal' setting. I do suggest you refrain from walking into the kitchen ever again, because you'll probably slip on his blood. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to take a shower or two." And he flounced out the door.

The Smashers just stood there, unbelieving, staring.

"Well," said Falco nervously, "with the amount of blood on his face, you'd think he might've killed someone..."

**I've noticed Zelda does a lot of gasping. Haha! Lookit that. Luigi's going crazy. Irony. _It's funny! _Laugh, blast you! Poor Mr. Game & Watch...**


	5. Day V

**So this story's been done for about a month now. Well, I realized that a few reviewers were referencing Agatha Christie's _Ten Little Indians_, so I decided to pull it out of my mother's bookshelf and read it to see what it's about. (It took me a while to realize that the book we have is published under _And Then There Were None_ instead.) I _am_ writing something rather similar! There's even a poem use... I assure you, this wasn't intentional as I was finished with planning and writing before I even opened the book... I'll probably end up changing another scenario that's alike because of this. ...That is truly creepy. But this chapter is creepier. **

**Gasp! Only six left! Better get rid of some before they get cocky...**

**Death List: Ganondorf, Kirby, Master, Captain Falcon, Bowser, Peach, Marth, Mr. Game & Watch, Ness, Pikachu**

Predator

_Day V_

Zelda leaned back against the wall and sighed softly. Her eyes were drooping, but she knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again. Too much had happened that day. Well, yesterday. It was about seven in the morning now. Link was sitting beside her looking serious and rather angry. They had searched the house hours ago, every room except the kitchen, and hadn't been able to locate the Master Sword. They might not have worried, but as Samus had pointed out, just before Marth realized that Falchion was missing, it had already been used to end Bowser's reign.

After the search, it was Link who didn't remember seeing Falcon's gun on the body, and the search was again performed. Zelda recalled when they went into the computer room that Falco had been acting particularly curious about the desk in the back of the space, though he pronounced nothing to be hidden inside.

Then they had gathered once more in the living room and forged a sleeping pattern. Samus and Roy stayed up at first and watched everyone sleep. Two people were to watch at a time so that if one was being suspicious the other would know. Then Falco had risen once again to take the second shift. They were deciding which of the two still asleep should keep the time when Luigi drifted down the stairs, looking quite refreshed. He had toned down a little from the previous incident, but Samus still insisted on staying for second watch also. With much difficulty, Roy convinced her to sleep. When Link awoke next, Luigi had fallen asleep, and Falco looked exhausted. He told Link quietly that he had gone to fill a glass from the bathroom sink and found the water to be boiling. Finally he had collapsed on the floor out of utter fatigue, leaving the last shift to Link and Zelda.

Their shift had been on already for three hours. To keep from dozing off, they had sat against the wall, trying to make their selves as uncomfortable as possible. And very softly they conversed among themselves:

"You don't think we'll ever get out of here?" asked Zelda.

"There's no way of telling so early on day five," replied Link with a sigh. "We won't resign, though. If we just keep thinking we're going to die, it _will_ happen. You said something about the ordeal's description?"

"Yes. It said that 'within a week there will be but none.' That would mean either that we'll all die anyway on Wednesday or...or if we survive until Wednesday we could walk away. Like--like nothing happened, I guess. But Luigi mentioned when he gave me the note that he had been thinking if the effect would reverse..."

"In what way, though?"

"Well...it could bring the dead back to life... The note _did_ say something about... Oh, I can't remember! I'd have to look at it again."

"In any case, it's in our best interest to stay alive 'til then."

"But I've had this feeling for the longest time since Marth died that..."

"That it's not one of us."

"Right. ...I don't see how _any_ of us could've killed Marth. You remember we were all arguing, everyone but Ness and Pikachu, and I _knew _they were there..."

"It might _not_ be any of us, Zel. It might be someone who is sneaking around, whoever took my sword is just waiting the whole time for a weakness. Any flaw in our step that he can prey upon...and we all have exposed our flaws, even without knowing. Falco is getting rather paranoid, I noticed."

"And Samus is being uncooperative, and is breaking us all apart. Roy seems to be doing okay, but I feel we're losing his trust..."

"And then we're just losing Luigi completely. You noticed since Peach died he hasn't eaten a single thing? Ever since Samus got on him about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now the water has gone bad."

"The water...?"

Link had forgotten that he hadn't told her yet. "When I woke up, Falco kindly informed me that the water in the bathroom faucet was boiling hot! Too hot to drink. You realize now that not only do we have nothing to cook food with, but nothing to drink as well? We'll be eating frozen cakes the rest of the week."

Zelda stared at him for a bleak moment. Things were just spiraling downwards, and if they began to argue as she feared, they would not make it to save themselves. "We're fate's puppets, now," she whispered. "There's no telling what will happen, whether we dehydrate or starve first."

He tried to think of some way to lighten the mood, but it was simply impossible. They paused and shivered in the darkness, and then a sharp, high-pitched wailing made them jump. Samus rolled out of sleep instantly and looked at them with great interest. Roy rose and glanced around the room as the sound continued. Falco groaned and sat up, and then carelessly slapped Luigi awake.

"Is that," said Samus hesitantly, "the fire alarm?"

"Fire!" exclaimed Roy. "If there's a fire in _here_ there's no escape and we'll either suffocate or burn!"

"We'll go check the alarm. It's upstairs."

"Can't we just pretend we never heard it and die in peaceful ignorance?" asked Falco somewhat sarcastically.

"_We'll go check the alarm_," repeated Samus in a low, threatening voice.

The six of them, barely awake, slumped upstairs to the first dorm hallway. The alarm was the average small box with a pull handle. The handle had not been touched, but the emergency red light was blinking. Samus stared at it for a moment in confusion. Why was it this one? The others went and checked the floor. No fire. No smoke. She looked at the box again and dismantled the base while no one was watching. Peeling it off just slightly so she could see in, the inside seemed dark, darker than it should've seemed. She reached inside and her fingers slid on something oily, and then it felt like a burst of static shocked her. Startled, she dropped the cover and looked at her hand. There were burn marks on her index and middle fingers.

Falco, the only one to be standing anywhere close enough to have heard the thud of the cover, looked over his shoulder at her.

"My hand slipped," she said, replacing the cover to the base carefully. The switch on the side was on 'OFF.' Whatever had happened, she would not risk telling anyone else but keep it to herself until she figured out a reasonable explanation. Maybe it _was_ oil because the alarm was just malfunctioning. Awful coincidence to malfunction at this time of day.

"What's up?"

"There's nothing wrong with it," she lied. "It probably malfunctioned."

He gave her the look that spelled out what she had just been thinking, and she wanted to just lash out at him for no apparent reason. Could she not stand anymore to have a man look down on her? Had her intense years of hunting completely turned her into a raving feminist? Then another thought came to her mind.

"Do you think it was a distraction?"

He looked thoughtful. "Only if one of us lured another alone while we were searching the rooms, and even that's really risky. I was the last one up, and everyone's here."

She glanced around at everyone in the hallways. They soon gathered in front of the alarm again, and it was quite apparent there was no fire in the building. If it was a distraction, the perpetrator didn't have the time or alibi to get in a kill. Or maybe the purpose was just to draw them out of the living room, shake them up a bit...

"I guess we go back downstairs again?" asked Roy.

"There's nothing up here," said Link.

They walked back to the stairs, a group of misfits brought together by apprehension. Zelda hung back away from the rest to speak with Samus.

"Was there really nothing wrong with the alarm?"

Samus studied her for a moment. She _could _trust Zelda probably, she was better at keeping secrets than anyone else there. "There was something stuck inside the panel that caused it to go off. It was black, and it looked like oil but it...felt alive somehow. I don't know."

"Not something normal, hopefully? Someone put it there to make it go off, then--"

She was interrupted when Roy gave a sudden shout at the third step down. They heard several thuds as he tumbled down the flight and rolled over the living room floor with a groan. Link ran to help him up at the bottom, and everyone else stood almost stunned, looking down at them. It had happened so rapidly that they couldn't comprehend quite what had caused it. Roy had been first in line, but now with everyone clumped together it was impossible to tell who had been close enough to push him.

Roy cursed half-heartedly as he stood up. His leg ached right on the bone of his shin where it had hit the corner of a step, but his wrist felt completely numb. He pushed his sword back into its sheath with his other hand and looked up at those still on the stairs. "Who pushed me?" he demanded.

Falco and Luigi looked at each other without turning their heads. Dull, unconvinced expressions. "Notice how he doesn't even consider Link might've done it," the latter muttered under his breath.

Then Roy watched an almost instant replay of what had happened to him as Samus lost her nerve and shoved Luigi into the railing. He lost balance and nearly went down headfirst had Falco not grabbed his shirt collar. Samus pushed past them both irately and examined Roy's wrist with an annoyed sigh.

"It's broken," she said after a pause. "Great."

It was his right wrist, so he wouldn't be able to handle his sword. Not a good thing to be disarmed in a situation like this. He couldn't help but smile a little at the justice Samus had served him seconds before.

"We'll go wrap it," said Link. "We haven't...been in the hospital wing yet."

There were a lot of rooms they hadn't bothered to touch, whether they just didn't want to leave the sanctity of the living room or if they were afraid of finding some body hiding under a table with the Master Sword. When Falco turned on the light in the wing they found no one hiding, but the same room Mario had treated them in for years. Zelda received some surgical tape from the cabinet and quickly applied it to the damaged wrist. Link, curious about the true state of the water, went to the faucet and turned it on. Immediately, steam sprayed out from the pipes and caught the attention of everyone present.

"What in the world...?" asked Falco.

Link turned the system off before the room was clouded and found the dials to be hot also. Then he turned slightly to see everyone's reaction. Falco blanched under his feathers as he quickly drew the conclusion. Zelda sighed in accordance that she had been already aware. Roy blinked, slowly processing. Samus paused for a moment and then, as Link had feared she would, spun around and caught Luigi along the jaw line with her fist. He apparently hadn't really expected her to lash out that far and with the effort to send him against the wall, and couldn't gain composure fast enough defend himself.

"And who here installed the 'flawless' plumbing system?" She stood looking down on him with her fists stilled clenched, seething.

He gently moved his jaw so that it clicked back in place and stared up at her with a mixed expression of aloofness and shock.

Being experienced fighters, the Smashers knew that these little bursts of anger did little to intimidate Luigi physically, but if it continued on, the pain added together with the constant weight of the blame on his shoulders would eventually convince him to wage an unpredictable war against her. Link thought back and slowed down the visual of the hit. Luigi had expected her to hit him, but hadn't counted on it coming so fast and couldn't have reacted in time. But the _anticipation _alone was enough to convince anyone that something wasn't right.

Zelda reached out and touched Samus' arm soothingly. The huntress refused to calm down, and ripped away from the princess. The remaining five didn't look at each other. This togetherness thing wasn't working.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

Everyone was split after that. No one talked much in the following silence, they all stayed clear of the cellar, and soon went in their separate directions. Roy and Link and Zelda stayed in the living room, Samus stalked off to the computer room. Luigi stormed off quite calmly into the game room, and he might have wanted to be alone but Falco didn't care much. The bird would be just content to follow his friend--no, not friend just yet--_ally_, perhaps, to the end. He couldn't relate to any of the others, but Luigi had gathered, from what ever went through his mind, a casual indifference that Falco was most comfortable with. Especially through the incoming hysteria that was about to push him over the edge.

He also knew that Luigi had cold anger rather than hot anger, and would not go as far as to yell or hurt him out of sheer frustration--Falco hadn't meant to push Roy, and because of his blunder Samus had another reason to shove Luigi around.

Perhaps they would have started a game of pool to burn off this bottled energy. But to pass time turned into the table in the center of the room would leave their backs out in the open. Paranoia continued to be their greatest defense. Falco settled uncomfortably in one of the video chairs and looked around the room. No blood. This room had not been hit yet.

"How about a game of cards," said Luigi suddenly. It came out as less of a question and more of a sarcastic remark.

Falco looked at him steadily for a moment. "Sure. But you're starting to worry me, you know that?"

He stared, then laughed. "Why do you say that?" He began clearing a table and throwing things on the floor.

"I feel like I'm losing you," he replied, thinking about his word choice carefully. "You seem a little bit...I don't know. Unstable. You used to avoid Samus' comments, but now you're _provoking _her, _flirting_ with her--"

Luigi turned abruptly and gave him a sick, sardonic grin.

Falco's feathers ruffled slightly and he rocked back in his chair nervously. "You _are_ trying to get yourself killed..."

"Not just provoking Samus, though, because you see it's a two-in-one deal. If I flirt with _her_, I'm flirting with _death_." He shoved the rest of the items off the table and placed his palms down in the middle, eye-level with Falco, who shrunk back a little. "Do I seem sane to you?" Luigi said softly, "Or do I look like the kind of person whose mind is slowly eating itself away? I've been through this before--walking through an inescapable nightmare where you just continue on until you hit a light. Except I've been walking through here for six days now and have seen no light. There isn't going to _be_ any light."

Falco stared at him with a mixture of fear and incredulity. "So you're trying to get Samus angry enough to kill you. You're abandoning ship. You'll leave the rest of us here to rot until day seven, assuming that one of us makes us that far."

"And no one will trust her once I'm dead. Don't you see? You remember the note? This is a _game_, and the _only way to win is to make sure all the other players lose_. When she kills me, she loses. They will think that she is the one controlling us, however false it may be."

"A chain reaction," he stated bluntly. "They'll pull apart and kill _each other_, and--"

"And you'll be the only one left. They will all have lost, but we will have won, Falco, and everything will be fine and we'll all go on with our new lives hating each other with wonderful zeal."

The avian continued to stare at him expectantly. There was a pause in which they just stared each other down. "There's something going on here," said Falco. "I think I know what it is. You're probably in love with Samus or something completely ironic like that."

"It's people like me that insane asylums are designed to hold." Luigi fell to his knees and lay his head on the table top. "If I hate her, we're ultimately enemies; if I ignore her, she'll start on someone else--you, maybe. What other choice do I have than to love her? This way, everyone lives."

"So it's all strategy with you, isn't it? You've convinced yourself to love her just because it's the only option left. You put your own sanity on the line to keep the rest of us from killing each other."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Heh. A regular martyr. But if what you said before is true to the future, we'll all be dead anyway."

Luigi fell backward and sprawled out onto the floor, looking more relaxed than he had since his arrival. "Exactly." The word dripped from him like poison.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

"I'd make another plan, Zel," said Link, "it's just that nothing else is working either."

She sighed in frustration. If they separated, they would kill each other, if they stayed together, they would kill each other just as easily. It was a lose-lose situation, but she would do all she could to go down kicking and screaming. She had never felt so exhilarated. If either swordsmen noticed her sudden spurt of energy, they didn't show it.

It was about five now. She and Link and Roy were alone in the living room. Samus still hadn't returned from the control room. Luigi had wandered off into the house and Falco, becoming bored, followed. The surrounding rooms were quiet and remained fully lit. Since the heating system had been shut down after Pikachu's fright, the air was damp and cold.

_Dead bodies,_ thought Zelda, her mind racing, _Eight dead bodies lying in beds above our heads, one hanging from a ceiling in the lobby, one missing, and here we sit while everything we love falls apart... We're all going crazy, if we don't drink soon, we'll go crazy with thirst, mad with hunger, resort to cannibalism..._

She must have shuddered because Link caught her arm and pulled her into a warm embrace. These thoughts were making her stomach restless. Even if they had food, they could eat no meats for they had nothing to cook with. No stove, no microwave. All of this was so thoughtfully planned out that maybe five would die today as Roy had predicted, leaving one left on the sixth day.

One left. The murderer. And in that same conversation Roy admitted that it was in fact Falco who had pushed him. Link had been beside him at the time, Luigi behind Link, Falco beside. But it was all so incredible, to attempt murder right there when anyone could have seen, and perhaps Samus _did_ see the push but refused to put her first suspection to rest?

"The freezer," said Roy, breaking the silence though still in thought. "Isn't there water in there?"

Link's ears twitched. "You're right! There should be a couple pitchers full!"

He stood to go down and Zelda jumped up after him. It was stupid to travel alone.

Roy was left to himself. It didn't matter. If someone came up to him, he had his sword at his waist still. He thought it odd, given the circumstances of what had happened to Falcon's magnum, Marth's Falchion, Link's Master Sword, that no one presented blame on him for carrying an undisturbed weapon around. Falco had his blaster, of course, but he hadn't carried it holstered for two days now. Perhaps he had been afraid that Samus would turn on him also?

As if on cue, Samus huffed into the room and, saying nothing, sat down across from Roy. Obviously her try at the computer had failed again. He didn't say anything either, but watched her quietly.

Then Link surfaced from the stairs with Zelda behind him at a distance. They each had a pitcher and he waved his in triumph. In his other hand was a stack of plastic cups. Roy looked at him and smiled.

"So we're not going to die as prunes," he said.

Samus blinked when Link handed her a cup and poured a portion of water for her, and then for Roy. Not much, for they would have to save it sparingly. They each tipped their cups and drank slowly. Water, precious, gloriously chilled water slid down their throats, and their stomachs rejoiced. It didn't even occur to them then that anyone else was in the building, just the three of them in this room with these little cups...

Three of them...? One...two...three...

"Where's Zelda?" asked Roy apprehensively.

Link stared at him confusedly. "She's right..." He turned, expecting to see her standing behind him. Instead, a pitcher lay spilled on the carpet, the cellar door wide open. "No...!" He took down the stairs once again.

Immediately the other two followed him. The freezer door was still open. The door that was closed and now locked was the supply closet, where Master kept some of the more climate-induced battle items stored. It was a small room, for most items were put in the attic. There was a little bit of water escaping from the crack of the door. The room shadowed suddenly--the cellar door closed. Samus growled and started for the stairs, but Link caught her arm.

"There's no time!"

"Link...!" a muffled cry came from behind the door.

_Something_ had triggered a reaction in the closet and caused it to flood, and Zelda was locked inside. It wouldn't take very long to fill such a small volume with water...water. How horribly ironic! Samus stooped at the security lock, entered the code. There was no response from the lock.

"Ugh!" she said, "This thing's just as screwed up as everything else!"

"I can cut it open like last--" Roy froze, fingering his sheath over and over again. Empty, empty, empty. How long had he sat there musing about being the only one left with a weapon, and the Sword of Seals had been missing the whole time? Samus didn't look back at him, but swiftly raised a leg and kicked away the code keyboard. At once the lock unlatched.

Link tore the door open and was greeted by an almost ceiling-high wave of water. Items carried along with it, soaked and defused bob-ombs and water-logged ray guns and ruined superscopes drifted onto the cellar floor. Zelda was kneeling on the floor, breathless but alive, spitting up water and coughing. He rushed in to help her up.

Roy stood frozen, still in slight shock. He wanted to leave the scene, go curl up in bed. Someone had come right up to him and just slid his sword out of his sheath, like he had been pick-pocketed. Except the worst money could do was give you a dull papercut. He shivered. Who ever took it would've had to be _right _beside him. He knew it hadn't been taken at night...

"Did somebody just get drop-kicked?" yelled Falco from the top of the stairs. "What's going on?"

Roy snapped out of it when Samus jerked towards the stairs. "I'll go explain," said Roy, almost anxiously trying to keep her away from the only two who could've been down there in the first place. "Stay down here and help them."

Samus knew what he was doing by keeping her away, and gave an annoyed sigh. She _did_ need to calm down a little. She walked in where Link had Zelda wrapped up in his arms, dripping with warm water. Warm? She spotted the open crate in the middle of the floor where it shouldn't have been, the crate that usually held hundreds of freezies. The freezies were gone, and the other crate turned over beside it used to hold fire flowers. The two crates would have been separated by a room's length, but someone had mixed the items together, causing the freezies to melt and produce enough water to flood the small room.

There was a drain for such accidents like this to escape through. She picked up the freezie crate and looked where the drain was supposed to be and found a bleak, dark hole. No, not a hole, it was solid. She knelt down. Black, oily...the same substance from the fire alarm. Just to make sure, she touched it, drew the same two fingers down the surface. Where her fingers went, a line of white trailed behind and vanished after a couple seconds. Then the substance lurched upward. She gave a shout of surprise when it engulfed her hand.

An unbelievable pain shot through her hand, her fingers writhed and contracted under an unknown pressure. With a gasp, she swung her fist and slammed it against the hard door. The blackness jumped from her hand and crawled back into the drain, slid down the holes eerily. Link and Zelda were looking at her now, watching the liquid ooze slowly out of sight. Her hand was raw, skin peeled away like it was an acid devouring her. And then, as the three of them watched, her skin pulled together and the pain was gone. Perfectly fine again.

"W-what...?" whispered Zelda, leaning more into Link.

Samus blinked away tears she hadn't even been aware of. The piping, something came up from the piping and-- Her mind went blank for a split second and a conclusion drew into her head. _Stop it,_ she thought, trying to shove it out. _Don't jump. This isn't like you._

The door had closed, someone had been downstairs, had pushed Zelda into the supply closet where items were already mixing, perfectly timed, ran up again behind her back unnoticed and closed the door. _It's not possible! He was in a completely different room, you passed him on the way here! _

Sneak in from behind, duck around the chairs, slip downstairs, grab Zelda and toss her in... It was possible. No one could tell her different. Captain Falcon couldn't contradict her thoughts anymore, and so they raced, continuing in a straight line until she was convinced that she had to take action. She held it down. _Calm down. There's an explanation for everything._

"I didn't see who pulled me down," said Zelda. The water had damaged her throat so that she sounded raspy. "I was standing at the top of the stairs and a hand covered my face and carried me down so my feet didn't touch the stairs. I couldn't even breathe."

"Aren't the storage areas usually locked?" asked Link.

Something clicked again. It was coming together all the wrong way, _but it made sense_... There were only a handful of people who had a key to the storage rooms. Samus, being the technician, had one of them. Master had one. Mario had one, being in top position for the overall league. Crazy probably had one. The last one, as Master had thought one needed to go to the veteran Newcomer, belonged to Luigi.

There it was again. Another arrow. It just tied in with the deaths of Peach and Master all the more. Couldn't the Smashers see that it wasn't that she was just purposely blaming him, but that every shred of evidence they found pointed at him?

She and Zelda and Link trekked back upstairs once more.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

Samus walked briskly through the hallway. She might have brought her gun--if she had, it was in the closet in her room. A small hand gun that she didn't have to use very often, but it would do the trick. She hoped she didn't have to use it, but if worse came to worse, she wouldn't hesitate. Hesitation was what killed people in this situation. She unlocked her room and checked every corner just to make sure. The gun was on the top shelf of her closet, as she had left it. She made sure it was loaded and slipped it into her pocket.

Then she picked her way through the building, passing through as many rooms as possible, looking for anything out of place. Nothing was. It was late, Zelda had retired, everyone else was up. She was in the game room. The pool table still had sticks and balls on it from when Link, Roy, Marth, Peach, and Zelda had played billiards before Bowser's death was discovered. Nothing here, either. She turned around to leave the room, walking along the wall, facing the door.

Suddenly, the closet in front of her opened quickly, the door swinging inches in front of her nose. Then the painful sensation of her arm twisting backwards and the ground of the closet rushed to greet her. The door closed, encasing her in darkness. A thud sounded from outside as if something bounced off the wall. She jumped up and pushed against the door. He would be leaning against it, of course.

"You've been doing a lot of shoving lately," she sneered.

"Not in this reality." When she didn't reply, he said, "I wanted to show you something. It's quite interesting."

She looked behind her. There was a glint in the darkness of a small empty room. It wasn't empty at all. The shine of a metal pole, it looked like. Her heart pounded. "Okay. There's a body in here. Who is it."

"Turn the light on."

She felt along the narrow wall beside her and sighed in frustration. "The light is on the _outside _of the door, you ass."

"So it is."

She tapped the door anxiously. She didn't really want to know who was slumped against the wall with the Master Sword through his heart. She threw her weight against the door in an attempt to throw him off. The wood vibrated a little, but didn't move otherwise. Her heart continued to speed up frantically. She didn't like this sense of being trapped.

"That tickled," he said humorlessly.

"Fuck you, Luigi."

He laughed dryly and turned the light on. It was exactly how she imagined the picture, except the wrong person. Being Luigi the one to make her look she had expected Falco. But the sword was sticking out of no one she ever would have guessed. Captain Falcon. His old, beaten body had a new added bonus now. His eyes were open this time. She fell back against the door in dismay, her breath coming in short gasps. She wanted out. She had seen enough.

He heard her scratch against the door and let up and turned the light back off. Then as she tried to come out he changed his mind and shut it again.

"_Luigi_!" she whined desperately.

"You have a gun."

"So?"

"Promise you won't shoot me yet."

"Like Hell I will! _Let me out!_"

"Promise, or you two can rot together like the perfect couple."

She gritted her teeth. There was no choice. "I won't shoot you _right away_."

"I have Falcon's gun. If you pull yours out you're as good as dead."

"Oh? How? It's in his holster still."

"You're sure about that? Here, let me turn the light back on so you can check..."

"_No!_ Okay, okay, I promise I won't shoot you, but I can't guarantee you'll walk away without getting hit!"

He let up on the door again and stepped back. She stumbled out breathless and slammed it shut behind her. He had jumped back fast enough that if she had tried, she wouldn't be able to reach him without lunging. She looked at him angrily, and he looked at her evenly. The magnum was on the other side of the room. There was a notch in the back wall where it had collided and bounced off.

"You threw the gun away. Why."

"I killed Captain Falcon," said Luigi impassively.

She blinked. Not only was she angry that he had changed the subject, but the surprise that he had interrupted her question to tell her openly that he had done such a thing was overwhelming. Then she tried to understand why she would be so stunned when he had been her suspect all along. It was the completely indifferent way in which the confession was delivered that bothered her so much. She swallowed, and with tightly clenched fists managed to say, "Really."

He waited patiently for her to take it in. "Apparently he didn't die the first time. He started walking around yesterday morning. Drifting around, like a ghost. I thought I was imagining him, so when I killed him I thought I was destroying a persistent nightmare."

She just stared at him.

"He couldn't talk, if it makes you feel any better, which it probably won't. He'd taken such a bad beating he was unintelligible, prancing around the house, spying on us. I passed him in the hallway last night on my way to take a shower and he tried to talk to me."

"When you still had blood all over you."

"He knew I didn't beat him, but he thought I'd killed somebody. Just as crazy as I am, and he was asking me to put him out of his misery. Can't think straight, can't talk, what's the point of trying?"

"Which was why you were gone so long. You spent your pleasant time killing him."

"No. He died only fifteen minutes ago. If you were looking closely, you would've seen the blood was still fresh. He knew who attacked him. I tried to get him to write it out, on the wall of my bedroom. He was so unstable he couldn't keep his hand straight. I had him sleep in my room and went back this morning and he was gone. Then he snuck up behind me and I got sick of him and I made it quick."

"But why did you throw the gun away?" she hissed.

"I respected Falcon's cause."

"What's that supposed to mean."

"Shoot me."

She stared at him again. It was a plea, a desperate plea. Disgusted, she said: "You think I have pity on you just because you pitied Falcon. _No._ I should, but no."

"I'm more of a threat than you think I am. You've had suspicions against me since this whole thing started. I'm not proving you wrong, not proving you right, but I just killed Captain Falcon and I threw the gun because I almost shot you, too."

"I know what you're playing at. I shoot you, the others are sure I did it. I get blamed."

"You're talking to a mentally unstable man with three different murder weapons present and the Sword of Seals running around the house somewhere." He jammed his hands into his pockets and glared at her. "_End it._"

"No." Her fingers twitched over her pocket for a fleeting second and she took a deep shuddering breath. _Don't do it. Don't even think about it... _God, it was tempting. She had good aim with a gun; it would be a breath of fresh air to use it again.

He gazed at her longingly for a moment. Then he turned his back on her and went to go pick up the magnum. And he left her standing there, a voracious fit of rage creeping into her. Captain Falcon had been alive. Now he was dead, as if that had never been so. She had no regrets of taking off after Luigi, whether he had a more powerful gun or not.

**I did _not_ mean for the chapter to continue on so long, but this was a big part. No one died today? Imagine that! Well, technically, Captain Falcon died, but not many of you seem to care... Ha. More irony, imagine that. This chapter may be a little over-dramatic, but hey! You're the one reading it! I'm sorry about spot-lighting Luigi too much. I assure you, _he_ won't be around for much longer...heh, heh...**


	6. Day VI

**I enabled PM--I had no idea it was disabled in the first place... This is where the story starts to wind up, so as a complete contradiction, the chapter is short. Sorry about the wait. **

**Death List: Ganondorf, Kirby, Master, Bowser, Peach, Marth, Mr. Game & Watch, Ness, Pikachu, _then_ Captain Falcon**

Predator

_Day VI_

"So you asked her to kill you, straight out?" asked Falco incredulously. The hallways were dark and uninviting on the way to the great hall. It had started to storm somewhere near six that morning and although they couldn't see it through the blocked windows, they could certainly hear it. With much difficulty could the Smashers get any sleep that night, but where so tired that they hadn't noticed their watchers slip away towards the control room.

"I didn't _ask_ her," sighed Luigi. "I _told _her to shoot me."

"She _didn't_ though? That's hard to believe."

"She hesitated. She couldn't keep her arm straight. She wanted to, but I waited to long. If I'd caught her sooner, she wouldn't have realized yet that she was losing control of herself. Then _you_ wouldn't be in so much danger."

The bird smirked. There had been a fight last night, that was obvious. There were a few scattered gunshots and thuds from the back rooms and the Smashers in the living room didn't want to find out what it was. It was late when Samus came in on the first shift with a bloody lip and a sore, limping body. She sat down and reloaded her gun without speaking, and the four Smashers knew right away who she had been shooting at. Then, on perfect timing while Falco was alone on the last shift, Luigi returned complete with a black eye and several red trails in his clothing and one streak down his cheek where the bullets had gently grazed his skin. "She _missed_!" he had told Falco, annoyed. "She was thinking too much about gold medals and not enough about survival!"

He looked back on it with a sort of humor, though he felt slightly guilty for that. Just the amount of agitation that Samus' mercy had caused Luigi was the single most astonishing thing he had ever witnessed.

The control room had been locked by Samus, but with her asleep and temporarily away from them, perhaps they could jimmy the lock. Neither looked up in the great hall, knowing that Master's lifeless body still hung from the ceiling. The door was still locked as they had assumed, but it only took a moment to open it. Guessing that they would never have to lock each other out under any circumstances, Master had set all combination locks with numbers everyone could remember--the date of the first tournament: 4, 26, 99 (for outside security differences, all locks had 100 numbers on the scale).

Samus had left the CPU on. The electricity ran loud through the wires on the ceiling. The huge monitor offered the only light in the room. Luigi spun into the desk chair and started to sift through the files again.

"What makes you think that she missed something?" asked Falco, leaning against the wall beside the desk.

"If I'm still alive, then she's stupid enough not to have tracked it yet."

"Something tells me you're feeling a little bitter about this." He shifted towards the desk and opened the third drawer. There was Falcon's gun as he had been told it would be. "I guess you were right about the magnum."

Luigi stopped typing for a brief moment and tapped the keys anxiously, listening for another reaction. He hadn't told Falco about Captain Falcon's true death, and expected him to remember about the barrel having blood on it before. If there was a realization there somewhere, neither of them showed the flaw.

"You suppose it's hidden inside the computer? Like in a chip?"

Luigi paused again and blinked. He looked from the screen to the keyboard to the CPU tower to the screen again. Then he turned and grinned at Falco. "I never thought I'd say this, but you're a damn genius."

"Are you kidding?" asked Falco. "You mean you never even thought of that?"

"It sounded too stupid to believe. I never thought of taking it from in dim-witted prospective. Sorry for the insult."

"I humbly appreciate your sincerity."

The CPU was postitioned beside the computer. It was a huge tower of metal and plastic that only millions of dollars and hands could forge. There was a panel on the side of the structure that opened for repairs on frayed wiring. Luigi peeled it off carefully and looked inside. Nothing but a mass of wires and chips and modems. He cursed softly in Italian and threw the cover onto the floor, putting a foot against the edge of the opening.

"Don't go electricuting yourself," said Falco somewhat worriedly.

Luigi stared at him for a few moments, sizing him up. "I've done this before. A little static won't kill me." Then he pulled himself directly into the unit and disappeared.

_Bloody nose,_ thought Falco attentively, _you know something I don't._

From the doorway came the sound of someone clearing his throat. The bird flinched, not liking the sound of being caught off duty. Link was standing in the doorway, but he was looking at the CPU. "What's he doing?"

"Getting us out of here," said Falco. "I hope."

Link raised his eyebrows and paused, seemingly speechless. Then he asked very softly: "No joke?"

"From what I understand, there's an off chance--but a chance all the same--that the code could've been written in on the program's chip or something." He leaned back casually against the desk. However, the Hylian could see the excitement in his eyes. A way out! So close! They didn't say anything more, and then suddenly Luigi jumped back out of the system and slid towards the actual processor. His cheeks were flushed with delight. He opened a file and closed it again and swiveled to grin at them.

"You're getting a medal," he told Falco, and for once his voice was light and sincere. "A big one. Golden with your name carved into it."

The bird rocked back on his heels. "Well then?"

"Got it. _I got it, guys._ The code. We're getting out of here. Right now. I didn't even need to look! I'm such an idiot, it was right in front of us the whole time, so obvious! It isn't one of us, either."

"What...what do you mean it isn't one of us? You know who it is then?" asked Link. He was in utter disbelief. Somehow, it didn't seem possible to escape so soon, yet alone find any solution.

"Yes." Luigi turned to the computer and cracked his knuckles for show. The storm hightened outside. He bent and tapped the code into the system with flourish and Falco watched the asterisks appear on the screen.

"I can't believe this! We're getting _out of here_! Five days and it's finally paid off! I don't feel so dead anymo--" A loud clap of thunder sounded overhead, so intense the storm could have been inside the room. The computer screen blurred in and out. The power shut off for a bleak moment and in that same instance, Luigi yanked away from the keyboard fiercely, back arching rigidly, hand still on the two key. The lights flickered on and off. Link froze in the doorway with his jaw clamped shut in fear.

"NO!" Falco ran toward the computer as the screen faded in and Luigi collapsed.

The building had been struck by lightening. The electricity had followed the wiring of the control room until it hit the computer, wiring into the keyboard, directly through his hand, his body, and to the ground finally. The others who were just now awaking ran in after the noise and gasped. In spite of himself, Falco felt his eyes burn with frustrated tears but refused to let them go as he checked Luigi's pulse. No heartbeat. Nothing.

"_Damn it all to Hell!_" he shouted.

Link drew the conclusion quickly enough, and he closed his eyes and bit his lip. Gone. The computer, gone. The code, gone. Their last hope...gone.

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

The day slowly crumbled before their feet. No one said a word. The new turn of events sparked their interest, though: an accidental death? Surely it wasn't coincidence that lightening struck the building just as the code was being entered. Things like that just didn't happen.

_What we're dealing with here isn't at all human,_ thought Falco. He looked around at the others in the room and flinched when he noticed that Samus had a gun at her hip. He fingered his own holster. He had left his blaster upstairs, locked in a drawer, so no one could get to it or blame him for the shot in the kitchen. He knew a gunshot when he heard one, and that had been the source of the ignition. It was also obvious it had been Captain Falcon's gun.

If Falco were to survive this ordeal, he would need his blaster with him. He rose quietly from his seat and, with a few words to the rest to tell them where he was going, started upstairs. No one would follow him. They were too catious to walk through the hallways, and if he screamed or died still not even Zelda would ask to investigate. It simply wasn't necessary to their survival. His room was on the third floor where all the Newcomers slept.

_Tomorrow is the day,_ he thought anxiously. _Day seven. The light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of Hell._

He pushed open his door and peered inside first. No lump under the bed sheets, no body under a table, a chair, and the closet was locked just as he had left it. Then why, if no one had been here, was his gun not in the desk drawer? His feathers ruffled. He looked around and saw it sitting neatly on the window sill, as if he had lived there. Then his eye caught on the window itself and he blinked.

Falco liked sleeping with the window open, but for security purposes Master always made them automatically shut at night time. So, one day during the tournament month he had snuck a chunk of iron left over from his Arwing repairs inbetween the pane shafts, and had padded it with a cut up square of blanket. When the window closed, it halted a quarter of the way from the sill and made no sound. The metal happened to stick out of the window far enough to block the iron sheet. When the sheet of the security system crashed down upon the metal he had placed there, the heavier block had stayed put and the sheet had bent upward.

In the little bend, he could see daylight. The lockdown had been penetrated. Carefully, he set his gun in his hip-holster and stuck his wing through the tiny gap and winced when a small jolt spun through his feathers. There was an energy shield beyone the metal covering. Samus had been thorough. Still, he grasped the edge of the cover and lifted upward. With much effort, he moved it up above the window and looked out. The storm was a mass of black clouds, casting shadow over the land as far as he could see, past the hangar, over the hill...

Wait, what? The hill was supposed to be on the west side of the building and this room faced the east... Holding the metal sheet up, Falco was chilled at what he saw on closer inspection. There was a rise in the grass that hadn't been there before, where some areas were brown with rolling mud. When the storm came in, it had washed some of the mud down the rise and exposed something that stuck into the air at an eerie angle. It was white, pointed at the tip and thick at the bottom where it disappeared into the earth. He knew what it was and could only stare in absolute shock.

Someone had found a way to get in and out of the Headquarters. Whoever it was, they had put Falco's blaster on the window sill just so he would look outside to see the proof--Bowser's headless corpse submerged in the ground. The run-off from the rain had uncovered one of the many spikes on his shell. But if this person could go in and out of the building, they knew the code.

But...if Luigi was dead...

Falco stepped away slowly and then turned heel and sprinted down the stairs to the living room. What he saw there wasn't any more welcoming. Link was lying face-down on the floor, a hole in his head. Zelda was on the ground next to him, weeping bitterly behind her hands. Samus looked on from far off with a dead expression on her face. It was Roy who noticed Falco in the doorway.

"It was a _blaster_ _shot_," he hissed.

The bird stood there, gaping. "W-what?" He ran his fingers down his blaster. It was still there. But he hadn't... How could..."How long ago? I was upstairs in my room!"

"I'm _sure_," said Roy. "We saw it come from that hallway not three minutes ago!"

Falco glanced behind him, down the dark hallway. He hadn't heard anyone behind him, or seen anyone.

"Come _on_! If it came from behind you or in front of you, you would have noticed!"

Samus stood in the background. Her facial expression was unfathomable.

Falco walked in and threw his blaster on the floor. "I had nothing to do with it!"

"Of all people still alive, you're the only one capable of hanging Master," said Zelda, looking up at him harshly.

"This is ludicrous! This whole thing! I can't believe you two! I didn't even _hear_ anything, and I _didn't_..."

It was an instinctual movement when the second shot that day went off. Falco spun off his feet the instant everyone else froze and pushed Roy out of the way. Zelda screamed and jumped up as the closet door spread open all the way and a gun fell out of it. Roy leapt in front of the door to catch the perpetrator, but no one was there. There was a timer on the shelf, blinking zero, a pull string attached to it that lead from a lever device to the trigger of the small but effective gun.

"Impossible," murmured Samus. "That's _my_ gun..."

Zelda was now biting her hand, holding back another onslaught of tears. Even though the true target had been spared, Falco had taken the bullet full in the chest and now lay sprawled on the floor.

"I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions...I-I never get ahead of myself like this..."

"You think you would have learned from my example," stated Samus bitterly. "This whole thing is _so ironic_ it's disgusting."

It was only ten in the morning. Three wary, confused Smashers sat in silence as the clock ticked away...

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

Roy pushed the bourbon toward the end of the table and took a bitter swig. "Three of us now. Any one want to volunteer?"

Samus filled her glass to the brim and looked at him, eyes glazed. "None of us had anything to do with it, obviously."

"Obviously," he repeated blandly.

Zelda picked up the bottle but hesitated. Drinking it would just make her feel empty, but it was better than nothing. She filled her glass halfway and sent the bottle back down the table far away from her reach. "We all have the alibi. Except for Captain Falcon, Kirby, and...and that lightning strike. What was that?"

"It was a lightning strike," said Samus, not at all interested.

Roy cast her a sidelong look. "Done playing detective, Sammy?"

"My suspects are dead."

"I for one," he said, ignoring her, "don't think it was the storm at all. It was a cover up. None of the other deaths were accidental or _that_ coincidental. I say we go have a look at the scene." Without waiting for consent, he walked with his glass to the control room. Samus groaned softly and followed him. Zelda rose to go, but paused first to refill her glass, feeling guilty.

The computer monitor was still blinking, the icons and pixels scattered all over the screen randomly. Roy tapped the keyboard and let out a deep breath when he didn't get shocked. The CPU looked to be in perfect condition; it still worked, the computer still worked, it was just slow and you wouldn't be able to see what was on screen.

"Can't we just get the code back? We have most of it..." asked Zelda. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, where she could barely distinguish the first seven numbers of the code: **4-16-6-3-5-3-2**. Why was there such a high number like sixteen stuck in with so many smaller numbers?

Samus sighed. "I don't exactly know how he got a hold of it in the first place. It wasn't in the system anywhere--I looked everywhere." She walked around the CPU and something out of place caught her eye. There was a thick cable--about two inches around--on the ground against the unit. Tracing the wire with her eyes, it extended off the ground and ran up the side of the monitor until it stopped at a hook on the ceiling. On the other side of the hook, there was another frayed piece of cable.

"What is that?" asked Roy, following her gaze.

"Was Luigi carrying a magnum when he died?" she asked.

"No..." replied Zelda. "What magnum? He brought a magnum with him?"

"Someone shot that cable here," said Samus, pointing at the hook. "And it fell from the ceiling and came against the computer and sent some unnecessary volts of electricity through the CPU."

"We were in the living room, asleep," said Roy, "and the only other two in here were Falco and Link..."

"And they're _dead_!" exclaimed Zelda.

"Which means," concluded Samus thoughtfully, "that it _isn't _one of us."

**oOoOoOoOoOo**

**I _really, really _didn't want to kill Link, but I also didn't want him to live. So I made it quick. It took a lot of willpower, but I finally offed Luigi. Aren't you all proud of me? It was hard to do because he held so much focus already. And Falco, well, the only purpose he served was to fill a slot I couldn't put anyone else in. **


	7. Day VII, Part I

**I'm sorry for the wait; I was getting a colonoscopy done WHICH IS JUST _SO FUN_ _I COULD SCREAM_. As a result of being hospitalized for about four days and just plain dead for two weeks, I have schoolwork blocking my updates as well as about a dozen FREAKIN' CONTRAST ENEMAS that are JUST AS MUCH FUN AS DROPPING A KNIFE ON YOUR FOOT. ...Sorry, I know I seem just a little bitter...**

**Death List: ****Ganondorf, Kirby, Master, Bowser****, Peach, Marth, Mr. Game & Watch, Ness, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Luigi, Link, Falco**

Predator

_Day VII_

Zelda was running in a never-ending circle through the Headquarters. She tried to stop on several occasions, but her legs refused to listen. As she raced down the hallways, doors swung open behind her and the lifeless bodies of the Smashers tumbled out. For every room she passed through, the ceiling seemed to get lower and lower, until finally she could go no further. The walls pushed in and forced her breath out, compressed until she heard her ribs cracked although she felt no pain. She cried out, and heard a voice in response.

The walls receded away to their normal positions. Link reached down a hand toward her and she pulled herself up. Then he put his arms around her and she relaxed. A scream suddenly tore at her ears. Blood dripped down her face and Link fell backward onto the floor, a hole in his head. She jumped back and realized that she was the one screaming. Roy skidded into the room with Samus by his side, wanting to know what was wrong. Zelda pointed at Link and they seemed to stare right through him. He's sleeping, they said. He'll wake up in a moment...

The room flashed white and everything disappeared; she found herself hopelessly standing in the middle of the blankness.

_"Zelda...can you hear me?" _It was a child's voice. She looked around frantically. _"Calm down, it's only me." _

"Who is me?" asked Zelda. She turned and found Ness standing behind her. His skin was vibrant and seemed to glow even against the white. "Oh, you look like...like an angel..."

_"I am dead," _he said, _"and I have watched everyone else around me die also. You must get out of here..."_

"I can't..." she whispered. "The code is lost again..."

_"Do you have the poem?" _

"It's in my room."

He started to fade away from her. _"The poem is the code...it's right in front of you..." _

"What do you mean!" she cried. A crack split the abyss between them and broke them apart. He became small as the distance increased.

_"...Hidden inside the writing...Look at the..." _Then he was completely inaudible and disappeared from her view. She continued to cry out his name and received no response but the echo of his last words colliding with her own voice.

The abyss quivered and swirled away and her own dorm came into view.

"Zelda!" a voice shouted from above her. "Zelda, wake up! It's only a dream..."

Roy was leaning over her, grasping her by the shoulders and shaking her lightly. "No!" she coughed. "Stop it, you've ruined everything!" She smacked his arm and ripped away from him. He recoiled and jumped back off the bed. She was repulsed by her own reaction.

"I'm sorry..." he muttered, turning to leave.

Zelda leapt out of her blankets and ran in front of him. "No, it's okay. I just..." Her eyes flicked onto her desk top. The poem wasn't there. It had been there last night... She didn't know whether to tell him of the dream now or save it for later. It was all so incredible, that Ness could've been able to reach her from death. Was he also in contact with the rest of their ghosts somewhere? She glanced at her clock. It read ten in the morning. "Is it really that late?" she asked, shocked. "We went to bed so early yesterday..."

"It depends on what clock you look at," said Roy somewhat bitterly. "You remember how Falco was wearing a watch? It stopped working the exact moment of his death--9:52. Sort of ironic that the computer clock is stuck on 7:34 and the game room, for some reason, reads 10:17."

She blinked at him. "You mean someone died in the game room last night."

"I don't know. But there's something else I'd like to show you..." He led her down the hallway and downstairs. The lights were still on from the previous day. He touched her shoulder gently when they passed the living room and he slowly peeled back the conference room door. Samus was waiting for them inside, staring ahead.

The conference room was used for rare occasions when either of the Hand brothers called for a meeting, usually to discuss a new schedule, or if a budget issue came up. It was a long, cold room with soundproof walls and a huge, round oak table that fit up to thirty people. Nine bodies were sitting at the table. Some had been positioned so that their elbows rested on the surface so that they looked as if they were listening carefully. Captain Falcon had been moved so that his head was propped on his hand in a bored fashion; Marth's arms were folded; Peach's hands were tucked neatly in her lap; Falco's chair was tilted back against the wall and his feet were on the table. It was a ghastly sight.

Centered on the table were several items. They were in this order: the broken wine bottle, a cookbook, Falchion, the charred oven knob, a half-melted cake, the paper shredder, a syringe, the broken microwave, the Master Sword, the blaster, a smaller gun, and then, at the very end, the magnum. Zelda stood stiff beside Roy and shuddered. Then she turned toward Samus and asked:

"Why is the magnum last, if the deaths are in order?"

Samus looked over the table with furrowed brows. There was something missing... She walked around the table cautiously, examining the placements. Then she stopped when her foot bumped against something protruding from under the table. It was the hilt of the Sword of Seals, and it was sticking straight through a leg. She jumped back, startled.

"Uh...guys..." she said, picking up the magnum from the table and pacing backward with her eyes on the sword. "Something tells me that Marth wasn't quite dead yet, either..." She pulled the poem out of the barrel of the magnum and handed it to Zelda.

"What do you mean?" demanded Roy. "He had no pulse! We even checked before we took him upstairs!"

"He must've been stunned..." she said slowly, "but weak, and someone poked your sword straight through his artery and he bled to death..."

The swordsman blinked. "But...I mean..._'either'_?"

Samus sighed. "As you can see, Captain Falcon is also out of place." She didn't want to go into depth just yet. They probably wouldn't believe it anyway.

Zelda was gazing with glassy eyes at the paper in her hands. Someone had been in her room last night... She remembered what Ness had told her just moments ago: _The poem is the code._ She stared at it, tried to make sense of what he had said, but it was just a poem. A typed note of grim fortune. He told her to look at something...look at what? There were no numbers except _none_ and _one_, and those didn't appear frequent enough for a ten number code. There had been ten slots on the computer, seven of them filled.

Ten! She glanced from Ness sitting at the table to the little slip of paper. There were ten lines in the poem, also. One line for each number...!

"I need to look at the first digits of the code again," she said breathlessly, turning and heading out of the room. "It's all here!"

Roy followed her out of the room. Samus hesitated and latched the magnum to her belt first. Her own little gun, she decided, wouldn't do much harm to anyone if she was in danger. Zelda was already in the control room, they could see her from the Great Hall. Roy, however, had stopped midway through the Hall. His immediate reaction to seeing the wreckage of the coat rack and several supply boxes fallen across the floor was to check the ceiling. Master had been absent, along with a death symbol, from the table. He was also absent from his hook. The color faded from his face. Samus rushed ahead. If he was still hanging around...

Zelda was tracing the poem with a ballpoint pen. She followed the first seven digits down their respective lines:

_A si**m**ple game of cat and mouse;_

_the one who wins sh**a**ll free this house_

_from a **s**adist come to claim the will_

_of **t**he master someone has already killed,_

_but h**e** is not the only one,_

_fo**r** within a week there will be but none _

_w**h**o stand ready to claim the lives . . . _

The rest of the poem had been torn away. That was why the wording seemed so awkward! Why there was _you'd_ instead of _you'll_!

But why would Master frame himself? Why was he dropping so many hints? She was suddenly aware of breath on her neck... She turned, startled to see that no one was behind her. Samus came in then, gun drawn.

"It's Master," she said guardedly, "he's looming around here somewhere..."

Zelda handed her the paper. "I know! Look. We've known the whole time. It's 4-16-6-3-5-3-2--but the last three lines are missing!"

"Yeah, but where's Master?" blustered Roy from the doorway.

Zelda recalled the hot breath and turned cold. "Oh, he's..."

**OoOoOoOoOoOo**

It took two days for the distress message to reach Fox. An instant transmission receptacle still had yet to be finished, so while communication was an improving amenity, the SOS still took forty-eight hours to travel about one thousand light-years. The message was curt. It said simply that Master Hand had been murdered and that the gathered Smashers were trapped and also being killed off, and would you please consider taking time out of your busy schedule, Oh Great Leader, to aid us in our plight?

Fox's initial reaction to the note was incredulity. It seemed in the way it had been carelessly written that perhaps Falco had become bored and sent a phony SOS to shake up things in another sector where whoever received it couldn't reach over and smack him. But the message had been flagged as important and meant to be read at once.

"Falco wouldn't joke like this," Fox told Slippy, who was rubbing his hands together nervously in front of him. He turned to ROB, the robot pilot of the Great Fox. "Get me a line on Plit."

He would have sent a message back to Falco, but it would just take another two days to get there. By opening a direct link to a planet he could exchange word with anyone he wanted almost immediately. He entered the briefing room just as the giant screen blinked on. After typing in the area code of Mushroom Kingdom, it took only two minutes before Mario stepped into view.

"You're not at the reunion," stated Fox incredulously. He had been expecting to end up talking to Luigi instead.

"Is that what it is? I was out of town when Peach and Luigi left the kingdom. The chancellor thinks I'm stalking Peach and won't tell me where she is." He ran his hands through his hair, looking wary and stressed. Obviously, it was very hot in the kingdom because he was sweating. Yoshi was in the background, speaking with a castle retainer.

"It's a reunion for all the Smashers. I was busy, but Falco went."

"And this 'reunion' is how long?" asked Mario.

"It doesn't matter," said Fox, glad that the plumber had immediately caught on to the problem, "You haven't heard from anyone there, but Falco sent me an SOS two or three days ago asking for help. According to the message, everyone in the Headquarters is in danger."

"What kind of danger?"

"Death--I hope you're not too busy..."

He turned and explained the situation to Yoshi, whose eyes widened and he left the room hurriedly. Mario turned back to Fox. "I don't have a direct link to Blight--can you pick me up somewhere near the Sarasaland desert?"

"I'm on my way, and get in contact with as many others as you can," replied Fox. "I just hope it's not too late..."

**OoOoOoOoOoOo**

Worst case scenario: trapped in a building with the most powerful person you know, who is going to try and kill you. You can't see him because he's either slumming around the house like a spy or standing right beside you a cloaking device. You have about eight hours to avoid dying or you let down twelve innocent souls who died before you. Not the best vacation Roy, Samus, or Zelda could have asked for.

They kept moving all the time, being extra careful to check any movements around them. As they went through rooms, they turned over as much furniture and opened as many other doors as they could to peruse any possible hiding spot in the Headquarters. There was no evidence that anyone else was in the house at any point in time.

"He has to be cloaking himself," said Samus, kicking over a coffee table. "And we're sitting ducks like this."

"How can we hide ourselves though?" asked Roy. "If we can just find the rest of the poem we can get out of here... Master's just toying with us right now because he knows we're cracking..."

"We play his own game," she replied, and started to walk away.

Of course, none of them said aloud where they were going since Master could be anywhere, listening and waiting. So Roy and Zelda went out of the room and immediately closed the door so that no one could have squeezed in with them. Samus had stopped at the bottom of the stairs to wait for the two of them. Once they were halfway down the hallway, they heard a door creak open below them and quickened their pace.

They barely even glanced at either the stain on the staircase or the trail into the attic, but instead unconsciously stepped around it to get to the supplies. The attic was the second storage area that held items that could risk humidity and intense heat in the summer. The items were boxed according to weight, so the cloaking devices were only partway down the stack.

"During matches, they're set to disappear so that the user can't stay invisible the whole time," said Zelda. "So that means we have to keep them with us, right?"

"Yes," replied Samus. "They aren't that heavy, so we can probably carry them in our pockets…" She trailed off when she realized that Zelda was wearing a dress didn't have any pockets. "Maybe you can wear it as a necklace?"

Roy took a string from a bundle of parasols and wrapped it around the device. It was a messy job, but it would do. He handed it to Zelda, who sighed in discontent but put it on all the same.

"Okay, wait a minute," said Roy in an undertone, "we won't be able to see each other _or _Master Hand. We need a sort of audible signal that we can recognize when one of us is near…" He tapped a finger lightly against the wall so that no sound was made, but Samus and Zelda would understand the signal. "…or when you think you're being followed. Three short taps and add a scratch if you're in danger."

"It's all or nothing now," said Samus. "So let's not hesitate…"

**OoOoOoOoOoOo**

**I'm cutting chapter 7 into two parts because, well, it's huge. **

**What a horrible cliché—Master is betraying them, O NOES. However, the reason is explained in a sequel I started last year and I'm debating on whether or not to upload it. **

**Okay. So…review at your leisure. But don't procrastinate! **


	8. Day VII, Part II

**RUSHED CHAPTER ALERT, RUSHED CHAPTER ALERT. **

**Death List: Ganondorf, Kirby, Bowser, Peach, Mr. Game & Watch, Ness, Pikachu, Captain Falcon, Luigi, Link, Falco, **_**then **_**Marth**

**OoOoOoOoOoOo**

Predator

_Day VII_

From the edge of the kitchen counter, he watched the shadow of a giant hand sweep along the living room walls. It briefly blended in with the darkened side of the room, then soundlessly flowed through the doorway and into the halls. Master Hand was not one known for his discretion. He hadn't even bothered to glance into the open kitchen, thinking for sure that no one would be there watching his every move. After all, who would step into the blood-stained kitchen after what had happened only three days ago? It was a room of bad memories, as all of the rooms of the Headquarters would soon turn to be.

But there was someone who had slipped in undetected under the crack of an open window. A small space had formed where the security system had failed to complete its decent due to some chunk of iron lodged in its path. Pichu had only been in the building a sheer ten minutes and he already knew who was who. He had been in every room and none of the four shadows had noticed him even slightly. He was familiar with the smells of Roy, Samus, and Zelda, and Master Hand, who had no distinct scent, was easiest to find because of his shadow. Master could change his form to his will, but his true self would always show no matter how he attempted to mask it.

There was another odor, however, that clung to the walls of the second floor. It was a thick taste towards the end of the hall near the dorm rooms. He had never walked into a more confusing aroma that made him feel so faint and aware at the same time, and he had crept into the open door—whose it was Pichu couldn't remember, nor could he read the sign—and the atmosphere inside seemed to sap every ounce of energy from him but he could find no source. No one was there.

There was no way to see outside except the little opening upstairs, but from the kitchen window he could hear whispering. He climbed onto the sill and tapped on the metal sheeting with his paw. Someone tapped back, more softly.

"Pichu, are you okay?" Nana whispered tensely. "Can you come out yet?"

Pichu had been sent inside, being the only one who could fit, to find out exactly what was going on. Although he was sure he knew who was inside, he couldn't quite catch on the the root of the issue. He made a soft noise and tried to communicate to her to keep quiet. Someone had entered the living room, bumping a lamp over in the process. The someone cursed rather loudly. Then there was a tapping on the wall near the lamp and someone else came in through the opposite door.

"Roy? Was that you?" asked Samus in a low tone.

"Yeah, sorry. I hate brass."

"Why did you signal?"

"Well, you tapped from in here just a few seconds ago, didn't you?"

"No. Have you seen Master? It seems like I've been in every room and there's just no sign of him anywhere..."

Pichu watched silently and wondered if they were aware that their shadows were visible. Probably so, because every light was off.

"Someone tapped in here a minute ago," said Roy. "I bet it was Master or Zelda then. Do you think he's onto us?"

"He probably knows how we're hiding from him, but not where. Let's keep it that way." Samus started to leave through the door she had come through and stopped. Had she turned her head to the right a quarter of an inch, she would have surely seen the little mouse on the counter. "Why don't we just close the doors here and pounce on Master when he opens them?"

"Wait, but what about Zelda? We can't just leave her out there with that lunatic..."

While Roy and Samus continued this conversation, Pichu quietly slipped out of the kitchen and up the stairs, invisible to them. He still wasn't sure, but Master was apparently on their bad side. Did that mean he was on short terms with them or was he really the culprit? He walked straight forward and only sensed Zelda's presence after he had collided with her shin on the staircase. She gasped and fell over the last four steps, taking him with her. A cloaking device crashed on the floor, scattering shards of metal across the hallway.

Panicked, he scurried out from under her leg and jumped up the stairs. Then, at the corner, who ever had been following the princess grabbed his tail roughly and picked him up, starting taking him away down the third floor hallway...

"Pichu?!" exclaimed Zelda from downstairs, finally having regained her senses.

He heard her run upstairs again and kicked out at his oppressor. His paw met rigid flesh and the grip on his tail tightened unbearably. A jolt of electricity stopped the enemy, who twisted around and flung Pichu against the ground with a foot raised to crush him. Pichu looked up wearily into a darkened face with insane black eyes, and then heard a familiar voice snarl, "How did _you_ get in—?" before the apparition seemed to slink into the ground and disappear.

An explosion of Din's Fire filled the narrow passage and Zelda cried out in pain as something took hold from behind her. Pichu whirled around and witnessed Master close his giant hand form around her body as she resisted fruitlessly. Without thinking, the pokémon threw himself onto the mass of white and bit down as hard as he could. Master roared and Zelda managed to warp outside of his grasp before she was crushed, but some of her ribs appeared to be broken and she went down to her knees in a fit of coughing.

Smoke was already filling the hallway. Someone outside screamed and Pichu was smacked away and sent spiraling over the flames, sliding to a halt near the end of the hall where he struggled to stand up again. As he turned, Master was upon him and he flinched as a diamond of blue light engulfed him. Master tried to break through to him, but the diamond sent a shockwave into him. At that point he turned on Zelda again, who had summoned the last of her power to protect the mouse. Pichu, knowing he could do nothing more to save her, bolted for the window as the shield went down.

He squeezed under the iron panel frantically and slipped from the sill. He cried out and landed safely in Popo's arms.

"What's wrong? Is it really on fire?!" he exclaimed.

He broke free of the hold and dashed around to the other side of the building, where Mewtwo and the others were waiting impatiently for his report. They would have to get the full story later; right now he had only a short message to pass on: _Only two are still alive_...

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Roy and Samus dashed across the hallway as fast as they could, slowing down at the steps only to stare with horror at the flames slowly eating through the third floor. After calming their breathing, they progressed up the stairs silently.

The whole far side of the hallway was covered in fire and smoke was pouring into rooms and over their heads. Right in front of them, Master Hand had Zelda pinned up against the wall with his massive palm pressing into her. There was an exclamation—not from inside the building—from outside near the front door, and Zelda turned to look in their direction, aghast. Master applied a great finger to the side of her head and snapped her neck on the instant. He took her body and threw it carelessly into the blaze, morphing back into his human self while still in mid-air.

He turned towards Roy and Samus and flicked his wrist, and the cloaking devices stopped working on the spot and fell from their pockets. "You know I'm so proud of you all for CAUSING THIS MESS!" he bellowed.

"What do you mean?" Roy demanded.

"It's hardly any use to you now," growled Master. He thrust his hand out and the floor in between them cracked. "But I suggest you find a way out of here soon."

The entire Headquarters seemed to groan as if some giant were forcing his foot down upon it; Master backed calmly into the inferno and disappeared in the smoke. Roy stood there, seething, until Samus grabbed his arm and pulled him down the stairs with her.

"He's right; we can't stay here long," she said.

"But the computer's broken! We can't even unlock the doors!"

As they started for the other set of steps, the ceiling folded downward and sprayed burning debris all over their path.

"And here I'd like to reiterate that we're stuck in a building that's _on fire_!" added Roy angrily, jumping over the obstacles without waiting for her to catch up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you _liked_ fire!" retorted Samus, who could barely be heard as the fourth floor collapsed into the floor above them.

There was a loud banging noise coming from the front door; someone was trying to bust the door down. They ran down the stairs, and soon a crack split halfway between them. The step Roy was currently taking also split and he started to fall through the foundation. Samus caught his arm with one hand and held the railing in the other, wishing she had her power suit on her. It was like the entire building lurched sideways in order to throw them down; she lost her grip on the wood and they both fell over the side, luckily rolling down the last of the steps onto the living room floor.

When they landed, they figured out that the building had in fact lurched sideways, and that the staircase was dangling by its planks above them.

"Impossible! But the basement..." shouted Samus. "How are we supposed to get out?" The quickest route leading through the dining room was on the ceiling now.

Roy pushed an armchair out of the way to reveal a door underneath it. "Difficult, but there's no other choice..." It opened downwards into the opposite hallway, where they would have to take a detour into the coat room to get to the Great Hall. He slipped down and hung on the doorknob until he could climb down onto a light post. Samus followed him deftly, swinging for another post when suddenly the house turned again, catching her in mid-jump. The floor was now where the ceiling would normally be. Instead of the top falling in, the bottom crunched upwards, sending splinters everywhere. Roy was still clinging to the post, but Samus was knocked backwards into the wall.

She winced and tried to stand up. Roy jumped from his post to help, but she waved him away. "Broken leg, go!" she yelled.

"I'm not going to leave you here!" he replied, and as he approached there was another shift, and the side of the hallway they were aiming for was slowly rising out of reach. He looked back at Samus desperately, but she offered no sympathy. Where she was, the building would close in slowly under its own mass and kill her.

"Go on, you idiot," she repeated softly.

He ran on to the doorway and pulled himself through before the shift leveled out. The weight of the Great Hall above was crushing the little coat room; he had to squeeze through the opening to get in. Once there, he found that the wall above his head was being stressed through by the huge computer system. He looked around the room for some thing to protect himself, a window to jump through. But the Great Hall was as empty as ever, and every window was covered in a sheet of metal. There was no way out.

He fell to his knees. The walls crumbled and the monitor came crashing down towards him.

"Wonderful scenarios, aren't these?" a voice said behind him. Master was sitting on the wall above the door, holding the other half of the poem in his hand. The noose was around his neck, and he was smiling.

**OoOoOoOoOoOo**

**Yeah...I'm a bad person.**

**Sorry...**

**The Epilogue will be up much sooner, really. **


	9. The Day After

**See? It's the Epilogue-type-thing. And it will consume your soul. The rabid dialogue, I mean. It's deadly, so watch your fingers! **

**Death List: Do I really have to tell you? **

Predator

_Day VIII _

"I'm dead."

"Dude, you're not dead."

"Am I in Heaven or Hell?"

"You're in a hospital bed."

"No I'm not."

"Uh, yeah, you are."

"I can't be in a bed, _I'm dead_!" repeated Roy, starting to get angry.

"Alright, alright, you're dead!" conceded Falco. "You would know better than I would. Sheesh..."

"Would you like another pain killer?" asked Dr. Mario, waving a box of Tylenol above his head.

"I feel no pain," said Roy, staring lifelessly at the fluorescent lights.

"I think he's had too many pain killers already, Doc..."

"Wait a second, if I'm dead, why is Dr. Mario here...?"

"Oh my God, he's having an epiphany!" yelled Falco sarcastically. "Quick, get me a camera!"

"Shut up," said Fox. "Go do something useful, why don't you?"

"I want to know what happened."

"Don't we all," said the vulpine, rolling his eyes. "Pichu tells us two of you are alive in there, and when the door somehow unlocks itself, everyone is alive and hysterical."

"Was the house upside down at that time?" asked Roy.

"...What?"

Roy lay back on his bed and put a hand over his face. "You see? I'm dead. No one understands."

"Oh," said Dr. Mario, crestfallen, "I don't think I have any anti-depressants..."

"I'm fine!" shouted Roy.

"I thought you were dead?" reminded Falco.

He glared at the bird irately. "So I suppose since you're here that the others were revived as well."

"Yeah."

"But _I died_," insisted Roy again, resuming the previous argument. "The computer fell on top of me and crushed me. Samus was dead by then, too."

"The doors unlocked themselves exactly one minute after midnight, and we came in and saw you lying on the floor of the Great Hall with everyone in the house gathered around you," said Fox. "The house was on lockdown, but no one will tell us why until you're there to fill in some gaps. They think you know the most about it?"

"I was the last one alive," the swordsman replied, now observing a variety of bandages on his body, mostly small cuts from tripping all over the house what seemed like minutes before. His right arm was in a sling. He was sitting one of the many beds in the hospital wing with only Dr. Mario, Falco, and Fox in the room. The others apparently took interest in the yelling going on somewhere nearby in the building. "What time is it now?"

"It's midday after the day you were locked in," said Dr. Mario.

"And you haven't told them _anything_?" Roy looked at Falco, who shrugged.

"You're the ringleader—we're waiting for you. Not to mention we're just a little shell-shocked still."

"Right then," he said, sliding onto the floor and straightening his sling. "Living room, right?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Dr. Mario. "Get back in bed. fourteen hours isn't nearly sufficient for a broken wrist, various cuts, three days without food or water, and delirium."

"I am _not_ delirious." For some reason, his wrist didn't even hurt. He wondered vaguely just how many painkillers were in his system.

"So you're dead, and therefore aren't delirious?" asked Falco.

"Shut _up_," sighed Fox.

Roy didn't show any sign of hearing the comments, but instead ignored them and walked out of the wing and into the living room. The middle region of the Headquarters housed an interesting scene that he predicted would have occurred already while he was unconscious. Captain Falcon was standing in the center of the room with his hands held out toward Samus defensively, and behind him Luigi was standing in the eastern doorway with his mouth open and a finger raised as if he had tried to make a point and Falcon had intervened, cutting him off from then to now. What Roy would guess was that Luigi had spent most of the day in hiding, had attempted to slip into the kitchen, and had been caught and hastily attacked by Samus on the spot.

"_You_ are the only other one who knows he had something to do with this, and you act as if nothing even happened!" she directed at Captain Falcon with astonishment.

"It's the _past_," dismissed Falcon. "I hold nothing against him—"

"_He killed you!_"

Those others present—about three-fourths of the entire league—started all at once. Mario, who had been carrying some dishes back into the kitchen, cried out and dropped the tray, shattering most of the glassware.

"That's impossible!" Peach exclaimed. "We found Falcon when you were in the computer room!"

"He wasn't dead _then_," said Samus matter-of-factly.

Luigi was looking at Samus like a frightened child would an abusive parent. She paid no attention to him, however.

"It's nothing," insisted Falcon. "I swear, I forgive him—"

"What if Roy hadn't lived for us all?" she challenged. "_Then _would you have forgiven him?!"

"But he was out of his mind," interrupted Marth calmly, "he wasn't completely on—"

"MARTH!" barked Luigi angrily.

The room became very silent for a minute, as everyone looked at each other hesitantly. Using the pause, Marth started to back out of the room and, by some unfortunate chance, bumped into Mewtwo, who had entered only a while ago. The pokémon gently pushed the swordsman back into the room and closed the door behind him. Furthermore, Roy seemed to finally be noticed and Zelda moved down on the couch to provide a spot for him.

Mewtwo stood a little bit to the side of Luigi as if he was expecting the plumber to dive out of the door at the first opportunity. Then he looked at Samus, who was now the one with her mouth open, staring at Marth.

"How did you know what was happening after you _died_?" she asked.

He glanced first at Falcon, then at her and said in that same calm voice, "I heard it from Captain Falcon yesterday."

Falcon pretended to stretch. "I told him some things already," he said. He regarded Samus hotly. "I hope that's alright with you."

She huffed softly and glared at Luigi suspiciously, who by then had regained composure. Ness suddenly opened up with a laugh.

"This whole thing is just too weird," he said. "You all contradict yourselves so well. Let's go, guys." He stood up and pulled Popo to his feet. Popo was reluctant to leave the room, having been interested greatly by the fact that a death was caused by a fellow Smasher, but didn't put up a significant fight as Kirby willingly went along.

Pichu hesitated when Nana started to pick him up. He wriggled out of her arms and, giving her an apologetic look, jumped onto the sofa and settled into Zelda's lap. Ness paused in the doorway and seemed to consider staying in the room. Then he turned and left.

Zelda studied the little mouse in her lap and then looked over at Pikachu, who was also eyeing the doorway suspiciously. Then she noticed that Captain Falcon was also staring ruefully at Ness as he left.

"So what's with you guys and the kid?" asked Ganondorf.

"What do you mean?" Captain Falcon pretended to be surprised.

"You and the two rats seem to have something against him."

From across the room, Marth coughed out a warning to Falcon. "Where's Master, anyway?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Zelda blinked at him. "What do you mean? He wasn't going to stick around here. He's in hiding in the city, most likely."

"Hiding?" asked Falcon strangely.

Link looked over his shoulder and saw Luigi cringe slightly. Marth and Falcon were obviously confused, as they had been, the Hylian recalled, when they had first been told that none of the Smashers were responsible for the killings. He sighed and turned around. "What's going on."

"Nothing's going on," said Marth quickly. "We're just having a slight misunderstanding."

Link opened his mouth to reply, when he noticed Roy was in the room. "Maybe you can explain some of this?"

"To you or to them?" asked Roy, nodding toward Captain Falcon and Marth.

The Hylian didn't quite understand the reply. He looked at Zelda for guidance. "It _was_ Master wasn't it?" He kept his eye on Captain Falcon to watch for his reaction.

"Yes," she said carefully. "He killed me, and both Roy and Samus were standing there, watching."

Captain Falcon kept a straight face, though he seemed to be fighting back a witty retort. Luigi looked very uncomfortable, standing with his head turned at an angle and his arms crossed tight around like he was hugging himself. Link realized that Mewtwo was talking to him telepathically, and it was by experience that he knew conversing mentally with such a strong psychic wasn't a situation you could get out of very easily.

"Master blamed us for the whole thing even happening," recalled Samus. "He was mad at us for some reason..."

Falcon looked like he was trying very hard to keep quiet. While most were pondering Samus' last remark, anxious to know the reason behind the killings, he and Marth looked like they might have already known, but didn't want to tell anyone. Link beckoned to the latter of the two, who hesitated slightly, to converse outside of the room where no others would hear.

"Are you a little more comfortable now?" asked Link. He didn't mean to sound quite so bitter, but it couldn't be helped. He thought he deserved to know what this big secret was. Marth blinked at him slightly and bowed his head.

"I'm sorry," he said in a small voice. "But now isn't the time."

"What are you hiding?"

"Really...this shouldn't be discussed right now." Link opened his mouth to reply, but Marth cut him off hastily and said: "Light feet are seldom detected," and the reference to curious children was caught immediately.

The two swordsmen walked casually through the main hall until they reached the conference room, which was carefully soundproofed. Once there, the doors were locked and Marth leaned against the wall and seemed to breathe for the first time since he woke up two days ago.

Link pulled up a chair. "So what's this all about?"

"Okay. You all need to know this, but I couldn't say it with—er—certain people in the room. Master is in hiding, yes—in Ness' body."

"What?!"

"Ssh!" hushed Marth, looking toward the door anxiously.

"You mean Ness has been...possessed? By Master?"

"That's just it. Captain Falcon was killed by Ness' hand, but the boy was mentally unconscious. Luigi walked in while it happened, but in order to keep anyone from freaking out, he took the blame for it... It's hard to explain. We can't let Master know he's in danger or he might threaten Ness in self defense."

Link paused to take this in. "So Luigi _didn't_ kill Falcon?"

"He didn't kill anyone. There wasn't any danger that he would—he faked insanity so you would _think_ he had something to do with it, but really he was protecting Ness."

"But then Ness is still possessed! Doesn't that mean—"

"He's still in an unconscious state of mind, under Master's thumb."

"But Roy—"

"Roy died ten minutes before midnight."

Link stared at Marth confusedly. "I don't understand. What about the bandages? What about the poem that said if everyone dies, they don't come back?"

Marth sighed. "Let me simplify this a little. Ness was possessed, but that doesn't mean he _died_. Roy died, and Ness survived, so everyone comes back. It was a hole in Master's plan or something. Okay? But to protect the boy, we had to make everyone think that Roy survived so Master wouldn't do anything stupid."

"But he's not stupid," said Link.

Marth remained silent.

"Listen: I don't know why you're keeping this such a big secret, but I trust that you have a logical reason for lying to everyone."

His face reddened slightly. "I-I'm sorry... I'll tell you later, I promise! Or one of us will tell you later—" He stopped himself too late and looked away quickly.

"Any chance I can beat it out of either Falcon or Luigi then?" asked Link with raised eyebrows.

Marth was momentarily flustered. "I think not—I mean, Falcon, maybe, but it isn't necessary right now—"

"When will it be _necessary_, then—?"

He stopped when frantic footfalls reached their ears, coming from above them. Someone ran across the second floor hallway, then the third floor, and then at the top of the building a door slammed shut. The conference room door burst open and Zelda and Peach were pushed in.

"Guard them—don't let them leave!" Fox ordered, darting back into the hallway.

Zelda ran immediately to Link and threw herself into his arms. Part of her dress was ripped, and her cheek was cut and bleeding. "I knew there was something strange about him!" she cried. "I knew it when we were still locked in! It was that presence near his room... I didn't even think to tell anyone though! I'm so stupid."

Peach was cradling a sobbing Nana in her arms, and Popo and Young Link were standing a ways off looking most offended. Kirby was perched on Peach's shoulder, trying to comfort Nana.

"I only asked him if he was okay!" she wailed, and when she took her hands from her face she revealed a bloody bruise on her lip.

"What happened!" exclaimed Link.

"Ness completely lost it!" replied Popo angrily. "She asks him a dumb question and he _hits her..._"

"He just...ran off; Mewtwo came in and started after him with a few others on his tail as well..." said Young Link. "We have no idea what happened after that, but Zelda says he attacked her in the hall!"

"They're not gonna hurt him, are they?" asked Kirby worriedly. "I mean, he punched Nana pretty hard, but they're just gonna catch him and give him a time-out, right?"

Link took a tissue from the box on the table and dabbed at Zelda's cut. "He attacked you? In front of everyone?"

"Yes!" she said. "Not in front of everyone...Roy was with me because we got fed up with the argument and left the room—"

"GET BACK HERE, YA LITTLE TRAITOR...!" Captain Falcon thundered from two floors up. There was a stomp, and then something fell over and shattered. The foundation of the building shook, knocking pictures off the wall. Then everything went silent.

The door opened again, and Fox walked in, panting. "It's okay... They've got a hold of him now."

"But do you know why?" asked Link.

"All I know is this: most of us—minus you two and the kids—were in the living room, trying to make sense of the argument, when we can hear Nana crying in the game room. Zelda leaves with Roy and on the way there, Ness apparently goes ballistic and tries to _kill_ her, and Roy tries to help but Ness just sort of...disappears. We were still in the living room, mind you, and then we hear Ness shouting from somewhere on the second floor...Mewtwo, I guess, teleports there, and then Luigi and Falcon take off running for the stairs.

"So the rest of us followed to try and figure out what the heck was going on, found Zelda and brought her here to keep her safe, but Roy had left to find Ness already, and when we went upstairs, he was tied down by some sort of black substance... Then we got to Master's office, and you wouldn't believe... Captain Falcon was flung against the wall like a rag doll, and Ness was standing with this insane grin on his face with Falcon's magnum to Luigi's head, threatening to shoot him if we moved."

Peach made a noise of distress, and squeezed Nana. "No...! What did you do? Are they all right?"

"Well, Pichu managed to sneak around and catch Ness off guard, and took the gun away and brought it to me" –here, he pulled out the magnum to show them— "and I held him at gunpoint but he vanished again! Mewtwo can't sense him anywhere in the house, so he must've left. It was the craziest fifteen minutes I ever experienced. Now I believe you all about what happened here with Master Hand."

"Great, so now Master's gone, and he took Ness with him," said Link.

"We'll get him back," said Fox. "Both of them. It'll just take time and some keen thought."

"But _how_?"

At this, Fox grinned slyly. "I've got a plan."

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**He's got a plan folks, and you know what that means! -cough-SEQUEL-cough-**


End file.
